Exclusive: Myanmar junta chief family assets found in Thai drug raid -
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[January 11, 2023]
By Panu Wongcha-um and Poppy McPherson
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai officials found assets belonging to adult
children of Myanmar's junta leader during a raid on the Bangkok
apartment of a Myanmar tycoon charged with drug trafficking and money
laundering, according to an official record and two people with
knowledge of the case.
Title deeds and bankbooks belonging to Min Aung Hlaing’s daughter and
son were found at the home of Tun Min Latt, 53, when he was arrested in
the Thai capital last September along with three Thai nationals on
charges of conspiracy to traffic narcotics and money laundering.
Tun Min Latt, who has interests in hotels, energy and mining, is a close
associate of Min Aung Hlaing, who seized power from the democratically
elected government in February 2021, three sources with knowledge of the
matter told Reuters last year. He has procured supplies for the
military, the sources said. Publicly available pictures show them
together at an arms fair in 2019.
Tun Min Latt is in pre-trial detention; his lawyer could not be reached
for comment.
Min Aung Hlaing’s two children face no legal action over the assets,
according to the two people with knowledge of the case. They added that
Thai authorities did not consider them relevant to the investigation
against Tun Min Latt.
Min Aung Hlaing’s son Aung Pyae Sone and his daughter Khin Thiri Thet
Mon, who along with their father have been sanctioned by the United
States and Canada, did not respond to requests for comment by Reuters.
The U.S said they had businesses that "directly benefited from their
father’s position and malign influence".
Their father also could not be reached for comment, and messages to
Myanmar's military junta went unanswered.
The discovery of the documents indicated close ties between Tun Min Latt
and the Myanmar junta chief’s family.
A spokesperson for the activist group Justice for Myanmar said the
discovery also indicated Min Aung Hlaing’s family was hiding assets in
Thailand and urged the Thai government to take “urgent action to prevent
it from becoming a safe haven for Myanmar war criminals by blocking the
illegitimate Myanmar junta and its members from accessing Thai banks and
property, and freezing stolen assets that belong to the people of
Myanmar”.
Thai government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri declined to comment and
referred questions from Reuters to law enforcement agencies, who did not
respond to requests for comment.
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Myanmar's junta chief Senior General Min
Aung Hlaing, who ousted the elected government in a coup on February
1, 2021, presides over an army parade on Armed Forces Day in
Naypyitaw, Myanmar, March 27, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer
CARS, WATCHES AND CASH
During the September raid on Tun Min Latt’s apartment in the Belle
Grand Rama 9 condominium in Bangkok, police said they had seized
$8.96 million worth of assets including luxury cars, watches and
expensive bags, along with $239,091 in cash.
According to an official asset seizure record dated Sept. 17, 2022,
they also uncovered title deeds and a purchase contract from 2017 of
a four-bedroom unit in the same condo in the name of Aung Pyae Sone,
along with two Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) bankbooks for accounts in
the name of Khin Thiri Thet Mon.
The document was obtained by Justice for Myanmar and independently
verified by Reuters with two sources with knowledge of the case.
Since the coup, Min Aung Hlaing’s forces have launched a bloody
crackdown on dissent, killing thousands of opponents, according to
the United Nations, which accuses Myanmar's troops of war crimes and
crimes against humanity. The military says it is waging a war on
“terrorists”.
Thailand, which shares a land border of more than 2,000 km with
Myanmar, has refrained from overt criticism of the junta and last
month invited junta ministers to attend a regional summit, which was
boycotted by several nations because of their presence.
The two people with knowledge of the case, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to media,
confirmed that the assets belonging to Min Aung Hlaing's children
had been found during the raid.
Reuters has confirmed that Khin Thiri Thet Mon’s bank account has
since been closed, but was unable to determine who closed it or
when. SCB and the Belle Grand Rama 9 condominium did not respond to
requests for comment.
The Thai police, the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB)
and the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) also did not respond to
requests for comment.
(Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um and Poppy McPherson; Editing by Kevin
Liffey)
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