Khin Thiri Thet Mon (Burmese: ခင်သီရိသက်မွန်; born 5 December 1981[1]), also known as Ma Thiri (Burmese: မသီရိ),[2] is a Burmese businesswoman and daughter of Burmese army general Min Aung Hlaing, the current prime minister and Chairman of the State Administration Council which has ruled the nation after the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état.[3]
Khin Thiri Thet Mon | |
|---|---|
ခင်သီရိသက်မွန် | |
| Born | 5 December 1981 |
| Nationality | Burmese |
| Alma mater | Basic Education High School No. 2 Sanchaung University of Computer Studies, Yangon |
| Occupation | Businesswoman |
| Known for | Co-founder of 7th Sense Creation |
| Spouse |
Lin Myint Phwel
(m. 2010; div. 2019) |
| Children | Akari Thet Mon Hlaing (12 August 2012) May Barani Thet Mon Hlaing (9 June 2016) |
| Parent(s) | Min Aung Hlaing Kyu Kyu Hla |
| Relatives | Aung Pyae Sone |
Business interests
editShe entered the entertainment industry with ventures in 2017.[4] She is a co-founder of a major film production company, 7th Sense Creation.[4][5][2] According to another co-founder, besides being involved in financing, her interests include costume design and identifying novels that might be adapted into films.[4]
As of 2019, she is banned from entry to the United States.[4]
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has imposed sanctions on her and her brother Aung Pyae Sone 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. She became a major target of a domestic boycott and social punishment by people who oppose the military regime.[6][7][8][9]
She is also a founder of Everfit, a chain of luxury gyms.[4] She also part-owned Pinnacle Asia, a company that secured a deal to supply mobile towers to Mytel, a military-controlled telecoms firm.[10][11] A week after the US imposed sanctions on her, she was removed from company registration as a director.[11] Khin Thiri Thet Mon has acquired a stake in Investcom PTE Ltd, which has bought Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor's operation in Myanmar. She has also invested in SBP which will eventually control 80 percent of Telenor Myanmar.[12] She is a director of Star Sapphire, an arms broker for the Burmese military.[13]
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.[14][15] The September 2022 raid found assets of her bank records and her brother Aung Pyae Sone's property title to a four-bedroom luxury condo worth nearly US$1 million in Bangkok's Belle Rama 9 complex.[16][17]
She reportedly co-owned Honey Nest, a large bar in Yangon, and chose to sell the business in November 2023 following multiple bombing explosions.[18] In December 2023, she, along with Naing Phyo Kyaw and Wai Min Maung, established NPK Motor Company and secured the rights to import electric cars and MG cars in Myanmar.[19]
Personal life
editIn 2010, she married Lin Myint Phwel, a former DJ and producer who was the leader of the DJ Xoon Mite group. He is reportedly on the board of directors of Seventh Sense, a major film production and media company owned by his wife. He was also the director and shareholder of Minn Pyae Tagon Industrial Co. Ltd., both subsidiaries of the Aung Myin Thu Group. He has been removed from the board of Aung Myin Thu companies since the publication of the United Nations fact-finding mission report on the Myanmar military’s business networks.[20] After having two children, they divorced on 30 May 2019.
References
edit- ^ "Notice of OFAC Sanctions Action". FederalRegister.gov. 2021-03-17. Retrieved 2022-07-31.
- ^ a b "တပ်ချုပ်၏ သမီးနှင့်ချွေးမတို့ ထူထောင်သော အနုပညာကုမ္ပဏီများ အချိန်တိုအတွင်း ထိပ်တန်းရောက်လာ 'Entertainment companies founded by the daughter and daughter-in-law of the commander-in-chief quickly rose to the top'". Myanmar NOW (in Burmese). 1 August 2019.
- ^ "In Myanmar coup, grievance and ambition drove military chief's power grab". Washington Post. 9 February 2021.
- ^ a b c d e Tin Htet Paing; Chan Thar (4 August 2019). "Military Chief's Family Members Spend Big on Blockbuster Movies, Beauty Pageants". Myanmar NOW. Archived from the original on 15 December 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
- ^ "US Embassy Under Fire for Working With Firm Owned by Sanctioned Military Chief's Daughter". The Irrawaddy. 15 December 2020. Archived from the original on 4 January 2021. Retrieved 11 January 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.
- ^ McPherson, Poppy; Levinson, Reade; Geddie, John; Wa Lone; Lewis, Simon; Grey, Stephen (2021-09-07). "How family of a Myanmar junta leader are trying to cash in". Reuters. Retrieved 2021-09-29.
- ^ a b Visser, Anrike. "In Myanmar, military matters are a lucrative family affair | DW | 09.04.2021". DW. Retrieved 2021-09-29.
- ^ "Junta Chief's Daughter Acquires Slice of Telenor's Myanmar Operation". The Irrawaddy. 25 March 2022.
- ^ "Junta Crony | Myanmar's Junta-Linked Cronies and Firms Donate to Armed Forces Day". The Irrawaddy. 2023-03-25. Retrieved 2023-03-26.
- ^ Wongcha-um, Panu; Mcpherson, Poppy (2022-09-21). "Thailand arrests Myanmar military-linked businessman suspected of drug trafficking". Reuters. Retrieved 2023-01-11.
- ^ "Myanmar arms broker arrested in Thailand". Myanmar NOW. Retrieved 2023-01-11.
- ^ Wongcha-um, Panu; Mcpherson, Poppy (2023-01-11). "Exclusive: Myanmar junta chief family assets found in Thai drug raid". Reuters. Retrieved 2023-01-11.
- ^ "Assets of Myanmar leader's sons found in Thailand drug raid - La Prensa Latina Media". Retrieved 2023-01-11.
- ^ CJ005, MPA (17 November 2023). "ခင်သီရိသက်မွန်အပါအဝင် စစ်တပ်ထိပ်ပိုင်းသား၊ သမီးများ အစုရှယ်ယာပါဝင်ထားသည့် HONEY NEST Bar ကို ပိုင်ရှင်ပြောင်းရန်စီစဉ်နေ". MPA (in Burmese).
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Agency, Yangon Khit Thit News (20 December 2023). "Khit Thit သတင်းဌာန၏ ဒီဇင်ဘာ ၂၀ ရက် နေ့လယ်ပိုင်း ရုပ်သံသတင်းအစီအစဉ်". Khit Thit Media.
- ^ "Justice For Myanmar's response to LafargeHolcim's announcement blocking sale to military partners | Justice For Myanmar". Justice for Myanmar. Retrieved 2023-01-12.