Irrawaddy-Oct 11
Though he has been dead for nearly a decade, long-serving military regime official Aung Thaung’s corrupt legacy lives on in the junta-allied business empires run by his children and their families and associates, whose interests now spread across Myanmar’s economy. After joining the Myanmar military in 1964, two years after Ne Win seized power in the country’s first military coup, Aung Thaung served military dictators for a total of 51 years until his death in 2015. Aung Thaung may be gone, but his legacy is preserved by his children. Aung Thaung had four children—three sons and a daughter. He enlisted two sons in the Myanmar military and groomed the other to become a business partner of generals. And he arranged for his daughter to marry a military captain. One of his sons, Moe Aung, is now an admiral and the chief of the Myanmar Navy, a position he was promoted to after the 2021 military coup. Military analysts said junta chief Min Aung Hlaing favors Moe Aung for such achievements as procuring submarines for the Myanmar Navy as well as sending officers to India and Russia for further training. Moe Aung sits on the regime’s governing body, the State Administration Council (SAC), and is also on the boards of directors (BODs) of military-owned conglomerates Myanma Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC). He was sanctioned by the European Union (EU) in February 2023 for his involvement in the Myanmar military’s atrocities and human rights violations against its own civilians. Another of Aung Thaung’s sons, Pyi Aung, a retired lieutenant colonel, is the owner of Pristine Hotel Group. Nay Aung is the only one of Aung Thaung’s three sons not to have joined the military. He is the chairman of one of the biggest conglomerates in Myanmar, IGE Group of Companies, and is a business partner of generals from the current regime. Read more at: https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/junta-crony/a-corrupt-business-empire-thrives-under-the-junta.html
