Police in Surat Thani have concluded their investigation into two nominee companies linked to a French businesswoman who died by suicide on Koh Samui in 2024, recommending prosecution over illegal landholding through Thai nominees.
The case, which drew national attention after the woman left a fortune worth nearly 100 million baht to her housekeeper, has now moved to the Koh Samui prosecutor’s office.
Investigating Officer Police Lieutenant Colonel Kittisak Charoenroop of Surat Thani City Police submitted the finalised case file for signature by Police Major General Suwat Suksri, commander of the Surat Thani Provincial Police.
The file recommends prosecuting G.V.N.E. Co., Ltd. and Maxicate Co., Ltd. for operating as foreign nominee companies engaged in land trading, in breach of the Foreign Business Act.
Investigators also recommended charges against two Thai nationals accused of supporting the illegal arrangement. Thongsai, 50 year old, and Ratchaprapa, 36 year old, face charges of aiding a foreigner to conduct land business unlawfully, according to the police case file.
No charges will be brought against the French company director, 59 year old Catherine Delacote, who has since passed away.
Background to the case dates back to 2024. Delacote died by suicide at her luxury villa in Tambon Mae Nam, Koh Samui, on April 29 that year, using a firearm. She left a will bequeathing assets worth close to 100 million baht to her housekeeper, a Thai national who had worked for her for more than a decade.
The Anti-Human Trafficking and Illegal Immigration Operations Centre of Surat Thani Provincial Police later worked alongside a task force addressing state land encroachment under the Fourth Army Region to examine Delacote’s land holdings and business dealings.
Investigators found irregularities suggesting she may have used Thai nationals as nominee shareholders to register companies and run a property business restricted to Thai nationals under Thai law.
Investigators traced the origins of the case to around 2007, when Delacote moved to Thailand and rented a house in Tambon Bo Phut, Koh Samui. In March 2012, she reportedly engaged a law firm to help register her as an authorised director of Maxicate Co., Ltd, without Thai nationals contributing any actual investment to the company.
She subsequently bought and transferred a 1 rai 2 ngan plot of land for 2.7 million baht and built five villas on the site through G.V.N.E. Co., Ltd, under the “Mapraw” villa brand. Between 2018 and 2022, three of the villas were sold for between 7 million and 8 million baht each, while the remaining two were rented long-term to foreign nationals.
Investigators found that Maxicate Co., Ltd had reported losses since Delacote opened the company and had never paid tax. In 2020, the company’s board changed so that Delacote alone remained in control of the land holdings, which by then included a large three-storey villa valued at around 50 million baht that was awaiting sale at the time of her death.
The case has become one of several driving Thailand’s wider crackdown on nominee arrangements in Koh Samui, an island that has drawn heavy foreign investment in villa and hospitality developments. Officials in the province have since stepped up scrutiny of company structures used by foreign nationals to hold land and property.
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