On paper, it was registered as a nail salon.

In reality, it was allegedly a front for an adult content business run by an Israeli woman through the subscription-based website OnlyFans.

The woman’s company in the southern province of Krabi was just one of nearly 500 businesses – ranging from beauty salons to cannabis farms – that Thai authorities say were registered by a single accounting firm.

All of the companies were linked to foreigners who had falsely listed a Thai “nominee” as the majority owner to get around the law on foreign ownership, according to authorities.

Under the Foreign Business Act, non-citizens are generally prohibited from holding more than a 49 percent stake in local businesses.

To get around the rule, some foreign entrepreneurs pay locals to fill out paperwork stating that they own at least 51 percent of their company despite having little or no involvement in the business.

After years of turning a blind eye to the dubious use of Thai nominees, authorities are now cracking down and demanding proof that citizens listed as local partners have real holdings in the firms they are registered to.

After launching a wave of inspections across popular tourist areas and cross-checking official databases using artificial intelligence, the government has identified 50,000 foreign-linked companies for greater scrutiny.

Legal firms say they are being inundated with inquiries from foreign businesses and property owners who fear their assets could be frozen or seized if they are found to be part of illicit nominee schemes.

“All of them fear losing their investment and being charged with a criminal case,” Brian Ramsden, general manager of foreign affairs at Lawyers for Expats Thailand, told Al Jazeera.

“It’s always the same excuse: ‘We knew it was illegal, but the lawyers told us it’s OK,’” Ramsden said, explaining that his firm has been getting more than 100 calls a day, “asking us what to do”.

“If the company is not trading, it’s a red flag,” Ramsden added.

Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has been among those leading the charge against fraudulently registered companies.

On a tour of popular tourist areas in southern Thailand last month, Anutin pledged to throw the book at illegal businesses and take down any criminal organisations using shell companies, a matter of growing concern amid the proliferation of cyber-scam networks in Southeast Asia.

“In cases where … one person holds shares and owns over 200 companies, it is essentially selling companies, selling shells so that foreigners can go and conduct business,” he said.

“This violates the legislative intent of the law, and it is believed that we will be able to prosecute in this regard.”

On resort islands Koh Samui and Koh Phangnan alone, about 70 percent of the 16,800 “registered legal entities” are part-owned by foreigners, the Ministry of Commerce said following an audit last month, though it added that their foreign links did not necessarily mean they were breaking the law.

Last week, authorities said they had referred 28 foreign suspects to prosecutors following an investigation into fraudulently registered firms in the provinces of Phuket and Surat Thani.

The arrests came after authorities in Koh Phangan had earlier announced the confiscation of 30 plots of land worth approximately 150 million baht ($4.5m) and arrested two Thai nationals linked to illegal companies.

The enforcement push comes as some local businesses complain about being undercut by foreigners.

“There are foreigners who invest in villas and convert them into Airbnbs, and once they’ve developed them, Thai people can no longer touch them price-wise,” Thong, a prominent Thai businessman who asked to be identified only by his nickname, told Al Jazeera.

“It is not right for foreigners to own them completely because it means many Thai people get left behind. That’s the real problem.”

The crackdown has also prompted fears that legitimate foreign investors could find themselves on the wrong side of the law unawares, damaging Thailand’s reputation as a place to invest.

While condominium ownership rules mean that 51 percent of any development must be reserved for Thais, it is not unheard of for developers in hot spots such as Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya to sell entire apartment blocks to foreign clients.

On online forums, foreigners have shared horror stories about buying and leasing property in Thailand, including learning that they did not legally own the condo they bought because it had been reserved for Thai ownership.

Across Pattaya, foreign business-people and investors are in a state of “heightened wariness and stress”, said Victor Wong, a foreign investment and tax specialist based in Pattaya.

“The system is tightening without simultaneously expanding lawful entry points,” Wong told Al Jazeera.

“Clients are no longer looking for shortcuts; they are looking for sustainable, lawful structures that will allow them to continue operating in Thailand with confidence,” he said.

While the sudden enforcement of decades-old rules has sent a chill through the expat community, not all foreign residents are sympathetic to concerns about the crackdown.

“This isn’t Thailand’s fault,” said Ramsden of Lawyers for Expats Thailand.

“No one put a gun to the foreigners’ heads. They come to Thailand, and most of their common sense goes out the window,” he said.

“This is about the people not following the rules. This crackdown is going to be better and safer for Thailand.”

[Aljazeera]

The annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner has been rescheduled after the original event on April 25 was suspended after a gunman attempted to access the venue, resulting in an exchange of fire with Secret Service agents.

The new event will be held on July 24 with “significantly enhanced safety measures and new access procedures”, Weijia Jiang, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), wrote in a letter to members.

US President Donald Trump said he would attend the rescheduled dinner, which will be held at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington DC.

The April shooting saw Trump and Vice-President JD Vance, among others, rushed off stage by Secret Service agents.

The suspect was subdued by agents on the scene, and one Secret Service agent was injured by shotgun fire, according to the Department of Justice.

Trump said the rescheduling of the event, which is meant to honour journalists and the freedom of the press, is a “sign of Strength and Fortitude”.

“This announcement is a very good thing in that we cannot allow Lunatics to change our way of life, or even its scheduling,” the president wrote on social media.

The WHCA spent the last several weeks raising funds to make sure that its members who purchased tickets to the April event do not have to pay again for the July event, which will be a “more intimate gathering”, Jiang said.

The association is also offering financial support to scholarship winners who wish to travel back to Washington DC for the dinner, Jiang said.

Trump said he has accepted an invitation to speak at the rescheduled event, adding that he’s not sure if he will “give the same rather nasty statements” that he had planned to in April.

“But we will soon find out,” the president said.

The April event – attended by the president, vice-president, members of Congress and Trump’s cabinet, and hundreds of journalists – was already underway when a gunman stormed through a security checkpoint.

The suspect was later identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, who police said was armed with the shotgun, a handgun and knives.

At a press conference immediately after the shooting, Trump said he would work to get the event rescheduled in the following 30 days.

The Waldorf Astoria, where Trump says the July event will take place, was first converted from an old post office into a luxury hotel by the Trump Organization more than a decade ago. The Trump family leased the building in 2012 and opened the Trump International Hotel there in 2016, before selling the lease in 2022.

[BBC]

Thousands of Kenyans have marched through central Nairobi to demand that the government declare a national crisis over rising cases of femicide and child disappearances.

The march, composed mostly of women, was organised on Monday by the End Femicide movement alongside women’s rights, human rights, and child protection groups. It was one of the largest demonstrations against gender-based violence the Kenyan capital has seen in months, and brought traffic to a standstill across parts of the city’s central business district.

The protest organisers used the brutal murder of a gospel singer, Rachel Wandeto, to rally support.

Wandeto was doused with petrol and set on fire by three men as she walked home in Nairobi on May 16. She suffered burns to over 85 percent of her body and died two days later at Kenyatta National Hospital.

The lobby groups have given the Kenyan government a 40-day ultimatum to declare gender-based violence a national crisis, or face nationwide protests.

Participants dressed in white carried red roses and gathered around symbolic coffins covered in flower petals in a tribute to the victims. A large wall listing the names of the dead stood at the centre of the gathering beneath the message “Stop Femicide in Kenya”.

Protesters carried placards reading “Stop Killing Women,” “Enough is Enough,” and “End Pedicide”.

Former Chief Justice David Maraga joined the march, lending his voice to calls for stronger government action.

The ultimatum to the government demanding action, issued on May 21, came as the Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya reports receiving roughly 70 gender-based violence cases every week across its three offices in Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kisumu.

(Aljazeera)