Thailand probes Chabad leader’s relatives, 19 companies and land holdings

Thai authorities are investigating the relatives of Chabad in Thailand leader Yosef Chaim Kantor, 19 companies linked to him and his land holdings after the government revoked his Thai citizenship.

Deputy Interior Minister Phonphee Suwanchawee said on 30 October that Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul had signed the revocation order. He said a Department of Special Investigation case file indicated that Kantor continued using his American nationality after being naturalised as a Thai citizen.

The Department of Provincial Administration is tracing Kantor’s descendants and anyone who obtained Thai citizenship through him. Thai family members living in the country will be checked for possible offences, with legal action to follow if wrongdoing is found, Phonphee said.

The Department of Provincial Administration has linked 19 companies to Kantor. The Department of Lands and the Commerce Ministry’s Department of Business Development are reviewing the companies and whether they hold stakes in other businesses. Phonphee said companies exceeding the legal limit on foreign shareholding could be classified as nominee businesses.

The Department of Special Investigation and the Department of Lands are also examining Kantor’s land holdings. Officials will establish when each plot was acquired, and land bought while he was a Thai citizen in breach of the law could be forced into a sale. Phonphee said assets connected to wrongdoing could be seized, frozen and sold in accordance with the law.