Aung Pyae Sone (Burmese: အောင်ပြည့်စုံ) is a Burmese business tycoon who owns a number of major companies, including Sky One Construction Company and Aung Myint Mo Min Insurance Company.[1] He is also reportedly the biggest shareholder in national telecoms carrier Mytel.[1] He is the son of Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the current leader of Myanmar, concurrently serving as Chairman of the State Administration Council and Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Armed Forces.[2]
Aung Pyae Sone | |
|---|---|
အောင်ပြည့်စုံ | |
| Born | 24 June 1984 |
| Nationality | Burmese |
| Alma mater | University of Computer Studies, Yangon |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Spouse | Myo Yadana Htaik (m. 2012) |
| Children | Khin Nyein Chan Pyae Sone Hlaing Khin Phone Myat Pyae Sone Hlaing |
| Parent(s) | Min Aung Hlaing Kyu Kyu Hla |
| Relatives | Khin Thiri Thet Mon |
Business interests
editAung Pyae Some was born 24 June 1984 in Burma (now Myanmar).[3]
In 2013, Aung Pyae Sone won a no-bid government permit well below market rates, for a 30-year lease on land at the Yangon People's Park for a high-end restaurant and art gallery, following his father's promotion to Commander-in-Chief.[4] Aung Pyae Sone also runs A&M Mahar, which offers Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals and customs clearance services for drugs and medical devices.[5][6]
A business source close to the office of the Quartermaster-General reported that Lieutenant-General Min Naing, the Quartermaster-General, assisted Aung Pyae Sone in leveraging his father’s position to secure projects managed by the military-controlled Myanmar Economic Corporation. Min Naing directed contracts to Aung Pyae Sone's companies, stating, 'It is the company of the military chief’s son.' Min Naing established the partnership between the Quartermaster-General's Office and Aung Pyae Sone, which led to the creation of Aung Myint Moh Min Insurance. Later, Min Naing introduced Aung Pyae Sone to influential business figures, profiting from these partnerships. Over time, Aung Pyae Sone built his own network of business contacts, no longer needing Min Naing’s guidance. Aung Pyae Sone's companies now earn substantial profits from military-linked purchases and projects, including the procurement of weapons and the supply of military uniforms.[7]
Aung Pyae Sone was awarded an artificially low land lease from Yangon Region's government and serves alcohol in breach of a Yangon City Development Committee prohibition. He also owns the Kan Tharyar Hospital and Azura Beach Resort, which promotes itself as the largest resort in Chaungtha.[8][9][10]
In 2019, United Nations fact-finding missions called for action against companies owned by Aung Pyae Sone.[1]
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has imposed sanctions on him and his younger sister Khin Thiri Thet Mon since 10 March 2021, pursuant to Executive Order 14014, in response to the Burmese military's coup against the democratically elected civilian government of Myanmar. The sanctions include freezing of assets under the US and a ban on transactions with US persons. He became a major _target of a domestic boycott and social punishment by people who oppose the military regime.[11][12][13][14]
Aung Pyae Sone partially owns Golden Future Linkage, a solar power company.[15] In January 2023, the military junta awarded the company a contract to build a 40-megawatt solar power plant in Mandalay Region’s Thazi Township.[15]
In September 2022, Thai authorities arrested Burmese tycoon Tun Min Latt who is closely associated with Min Aung Hlaing and his family, on money laundering and drug trafficking charges, following a raid.[16][17] The September 2022 raid found assets of Aung Pyae Sone's property title to a four-bedroom luxury condo worth nearly US$1 million in Bangkok's Belle Rama 9 complex, and his sister's bank records.[18][19]
In 2023, Aung Pyae Sone acquired a stake in an island known as Little Inya, which is adjacent to Yangon University’s Hline campus. He is the biggest shareholder in a luxury condominium, Inno City.[7]
References
edit- ^ a b c "တပ်ချုပ်သားပိုင်ကုမ္ပဏီများကို အရေးယူရန် ကုလအချက်အလက်ရှာဖွေရေးအဖွဲ့ တောင်းဆို". Myanmar NOW (in Burmese). Archived from the original on 1 February 2021. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
- ^ "Solar Power Contracts Awarded to Company Linked to Myanmar Junta Chief's son". The Irrawaddy. 15 June 2022.
- ^ "Notice of OFAC Sanctions Action". Federal Register. 17 March 2021. Retrieved 31 July 2022.
- ^ "Military Chief's Son Paid 'Very Low' Rent for His Upscale Restaurant on Government-Owned Land". Myanmar NOW. Archived from the original on 17 July 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
- ^ "ဗိုလ်ချုပ်မှူးကြီးသား ဦးအောင်ပြည့်စုံ ဒါရိုက်တာအဖြစ် ပါဝင်သော A & M Mahar ကုမ္ပဏီလုပ်ငန်းများ အကျိုး စီးပွားပဋိပက္ခရှိနိုင်ဟု ဝေဖန်ခံရ". Khitthit Media (in Burmese). 14 August 2020. Archived from the original on 20 February 2021. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
- ^ "Dirty Secrets #2: Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing's family profiting off of FDA and Customs clearances". Justice For Myanmar. Archived from the original on 26 October 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
- ^ a b "Post-Coup Myanmar is a Family Business: Min Aung Hlaing & Co". The Irrawaddy.
- ^ "Who profits from a coup? The power and greed of Senior General Min Aung Hlaing". www.justiceformyanmar.org.
- ^ "ပြည်သူ့ဥယျာဉ်အတွင်း တပ်ချုပ်သား လုပ်ကိုင်ခွင့်ရရှိထားသော လုပ်ငန်းများ". Myanmar NOW (in Burmese). 18 July 2019.
- ^ "Coup regime's minister visits hotel owned by military chief's son to mark 'resumption' of tourism in Myanmar". Myanmar NOW. 23 March 2021.
- ^ Psaledakis, Simon Lewis, Daphne (10 March 2021). "U.S. imposes sanctions on children of Myanmar military leader, companies". Reuters.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "US sanctions 2 adult children of Myanmar junta leader". www.aa.com.tr. 11 March 2021.
- ^ "US Slaps Sanctions on Adult Children of Myanmar Military Leader". VOA. 10 March 2022.
- ^ "United States _targets Family Members Profiting from Connection to Burmese Coup Leader". U.S. Embassy in Burma. 11 March 2021.
- ^ a b "Myanmar Regime Chief's son Proposes Mandalay Solar Power Plant". The Irrawaddy. 19 January 2023. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
- ^ Wongcha-um, Panu; Mcpherson, Poppy (21 September 2022). "Thailand arrests Myanmar military-linked businessman suspected of drug trafficking". Reuters. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
- ^ "Myanmar arms broker arrested in Thailand". Myanmar NOW. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
- ^ Wongcha-um, Panu; Mcpherson, Poppy (11 January 2023). "Exclusive: Myanmar junta chief family assets found in Thai drug raid". Reuters. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
- ^ "Assets of Myanmar leader's sons found in Thailand drug raid - La Prensa Latina Media". Retrieved 11 January 2023.