Myanmar Junta Boss’ Family ‘Tried to Launder a Ton of Gold After Coup’

The family of Myanmar coup leader Min Aung Haling tried to launder 800 kg of gold valued at approximately US$48 million through Thailand, Laos and Hong Kong in months after the 2021 putsch, Justice for Myanmar (JFM) said Friday.

But the plot, coordinated by the junta boss’ daughter Khin Thiri Thet Mon, failed.

The attempt came shortly after the U.S. imposed sanctions against Khin Thiri Thet Mon and her brother Aung Pyae Sone as well as their six companies in March 2021.

In an investigation based on draft contracts, letters of intent and private messages, JFM reveals that the family-backed network sought to sell the gold at a knockdown price to a subsidiary of the Lao conglomerate AIF Group.

The payments were then to be funneled through AIF’s partially state-owned subsidiary BIC Bank Lao.

Junta crony Tun Min Latt, a prominent arms broker, acted as an intermediary together with a business partner, then-Thai Senator Upakit Pachariyangkun, routing the gold through a Thai company that would appear as the end seller on paper.

Tun Min Latt also helped Min Aung Hlaing’s family to a $3 million luxury residence in Bangkok.

The leaked documents show that 200 kg of gold had already been sold at this point, though the group could not confirm whether it did indeed change hands.

But the proposed deal with AIF for the other 800 kg collapsed in mid-2021 because neither of the two sides was willing to provide the security the other wanted.

Based on its investigations, the rights group said the dictator, his family and their close associates were “directly involved in money laundering and asset theft.”

He also enriched himself from the exploitation of Myanmar’s gold by sanctioned military businesses, it added.

“Institutionally, the junta sites at the center of a web of transnational criminal activities that include cyber scams, human trafficking, money laundering and illegal gambling,” it said.

“These criminal activities fuel the junta’s ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against the Myanmar people and threaten the security of countries in the region.”

It called for “coordinated and targeted” sanctions against the regime and its cronies to block their access to funds, arms and aviation fuel, and for full accountability for their international and transnational crimes.

JFM urged the international community not to recognize Min Aung Hlain’s recently rebranded, cod-civilian regime.

“Since the sham election, the junta has intensified indiscriminate airstrikes and continued its campaign of arbitrary arrests and torture, committing international crimes with total impunity,” added JFM spokeswoman Yadanar Maung.