The chair of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), a longtime proxy for the military in Myanmar’s domestic politics, may have abused his position to funnel billions of kyat in party funds to a family member, according to a Myanmar Now investigation.
According to records in Myanmar’s company registry and sources close to USDP leaders, a construction company owned by the son of the 72-year-old party chairman Khin Yi is being paid to rebuild the party’s earthquake-damaged office in the junta’s administrative capital, Naypyitaw.
Following the quake that hit central Myanmar in late March, the company Empreo Construction was chosen to complete a two billion-kyat (US $495,000) reconstruction of the USDP headquarters in Dekkhinathiri Township.
Three sources connected to the party’s leadership—as well as information from Myanmar’s business registry, the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA)—confirmed Htet Yan Naing Soe is registered as a director of the company.
The March earthquake, the epicentre of which was in Sagaing Region north of the capital, caused extensive damage to the conference hall, walls, ceiling, portico, and corridors of the office building that houses the USDP headquarters.
Source – DICA
Party officials reportedly initially requested an estimate for the cost of repairs from the Aung Chan Thar company, which had built the headquarters shortly after the USDP’s founding in the early 2010s. The party’s founder, Thein Sein, was a retired general who went on to become prime minister and later president of Myanmar.
After Aung Chan Thar quoted an estimate of 2.3 billion kyat (US $569,000), representatives from Empreo Construction also came and inspected the damage before submitting a slightly lower estimate of 2.2 billion (US $545,000).
“It appears the project was given to his son’s company just because their bid was lower. That’s it,” a source close to the USDP leadership said.
Former Lieutenant General Myo Zaw Thein, now serving as a party third vice-chair after joining its leadership three years ago, was reportedly the only USDP member who officially objected to awarding the project to the chair’s son, a decision that reportedly bypassed the proper procedure for awarding tenders.
“No one spoke up much because he’s the chairman, but they were clearly dissatisfied,” the USDP source added.
The repair work is ongoing as of November, with the party already having paid close to a billion kyat (US $248,000) to the company owned by Khin Yi’s son.
USDP-connected sources said that Empreo has not only been assigned the repair project in Dekkhinathiri but was also hired to build party offices in Tatkon Township, Naypyitaw Union Territory and Nawnghkio Township, northern Shan State. They did not disclose the cost estimates or amount of funds allocated for the other construction projects.
Empreo’s Tik Tok account not only features videos of repair work on the USDP’s Dekkinathiri Township headquarters, but also on the party office in Shwe Kyar Pin Ward in Naypyitaw’s Zabuthiri Township.
The Myanmar military regime regained control of the USDP office site in Nawnghkio when it recaptured the town from the ethnic armed group Ta’ang National Liberation Army in July of this year. The party office had burned during clashes for control of the town and needed rebuilding.
According to Nawnghkio residents, the planned construction had not begun as of the first week of November.
Khin Yi and his family
Before chairing the USDP, Khin Yi previously served as chief of Myanmar’s national police force and minister of immigration and population under Thein Sein, later taking the same ministerial role for a year on an interim basis in Senior General Min Aung Hlaing’s coup regime.
A former brigadier general who claims to have been shot 17 times in combat during his military service, Khin Yi has three children: his son Htet Yan Naing Soe as well as two daughters, Khin Myo Myat Soe and May Phu Pwint Soe.
Empreo is not his family’s only registered business.
Htet Yan Naing Soe is listed as a director of at least three registered companies in the DICA records, including Empreo and a private security firm.
At two of his registered companies, Shwe Mahar Khit and Zanes, DICA also lists his elder sister Khin Myo Myat Soe, his younger sister May Phu Pwint Soe, and his wife Phu Pwint Wathan as directors.
DICA records show that Empreo and Shwe Mahar Khit were registered on October 4, 2016 at the same address in Ward 5 of Kyauktada Township, Yangon. Myanmar Now visited the location and found only a residential flat with no office or company signboard.
DICA describes Empreo as a civil engineering and water transportation company; Shwe Mahar Khit as a provider of security, investigative services, and office administrative services; and Zanes as an advertising and market analysis firm.
A flyer from Khin Yi’s 2020 election campaign claimed his three children all hold master’s degrees from abroad. Htet Yan Naing Soe’s LinkedIn profile confirms that, in addition to studying at the Myanmar Maritime University, he earned a master’s degree from the University of Melbourne a decade ago.
Little-known before the quake
Surprisingly few people in Naypyitaw’s construction industry have been aware of Khin Yi’s son’s Empreo Company for more than a few months.
“I haven’t heard of this company, Empreo, in construction. It’s not among the well-known firms,” said an executive at a longer-established construction company that has been active in Naypyitaw for a decade.
“Aung Lin Dwe’s children’s companies, for example, are widely known,” he said, referring to construction firms owned by the family of a high-ranking junta official sanctioned by the United States.
“For all any of us know, Empreo could be operating in secret,” added the executive, who asked that he and his business not be named.
This obscurity has apparently persisted despite the company’s incorporation nine years ago, as recorded in DICA, and a few signs of activity by the company in Naypyidaw before the March earthquake.
A job announcement was posted on Facebook late last year, titled “Engineering and Knowledge Sharing Jobs”, calling for applicants for a designer position in Naypyitaw. The advertisement said the job would be with Empreo Construction Company in Dekkhinathiri Township, but did not give a full address.
The Tik Tok account Empreo Group, which still has less than 300 followers, launched on April 5 of this year, just over a week after the March earthquake. The company’s profile included the statement: “We are deeply saddened by the losses and impacts citizens have experienced from the earthquake.”
A holiday greeting posted by the same account on April 13, the eve of the Thingyan water festival, included the phrase, “May Myanmar become stronger”, six months before “Stronger Myanmar” became an official election slogan of the USDP.
These and other details, including a video showing Empreo’s apparent involvement in the building of the Naga Phyu Sasana Yeiktha Buddhist ordination hall in Lewe Township, which Khin Yi claimed credit for building last year, corroborate Empreo’s connection to Khin Yi and his family outlined in the DICA records.
When Myanmar Now contacted Empreo, an employee confirmed that the company had been selected for reconstructing residential buildings and USDP offices in Naypyitaw, including the ongoing repairs of the party headquarters in Dekkhinathiri Township. The employee, however, claimed not to know who owned Empreo.
“The repairs on the party headquarters aren’t finished yet, but the construction of the Shwe Kyar Pin party office is complete,” the Empreo employee said.
Khin Yi’s quest for high office
In the election the Myanmar military regime plans to hold at the end of December, Khin Yi is currently standing for a seat in Myanmar’s lower parliamentary chamber, the Pyithu Hluttaw, representing a constituency in Naypyitaw’s Zayathiri Township.
A safe seat for the party, the Zayathiri Township constituency has chosen USDP candidates in every election since 2010, so Khin Yi’s victory there is virtually assured.
Nonetheless, Khin Yi has been campaigning vigorously, maintaining a high profile through public appearances in Naypyitaw as well as in online, studio-recorded videos with high production values. Sources close to the USDP are predicting his appointment to a high-ranking ministerial office following the vote.
Some, however, are dismayed by his reputed corruption and abuse of office.
“This is a familiar practice—funneling benefits to one’s own circle without an official tender,” said a former member of parliament for the USDP, who asked to remain anonymous. “As the old saying goes, it’s hard to break free from inherited traits.”
Previously a resident of Ottarathiri Township, Khin Yi relocated to Dekkhinathiri Township with his family after their home sustained severe damage in the earthquake.
Locals described his new residence as sitting on a spacious parcel of land east of the Dekkhinathiri Market. There is a police security outpost located just up the street from the property, which is equipped with at least four security cameras.
Myanmar Now reached USDP spokesperson Hla Thein by phone on November 14 with enquiries about how the party decided to assign a project to a company run by the chairman’s son. Hla Thein picked up the phone but refused to explain, abruptly hung up, and did not answer subsequent calls.
Party chair campaigns for parliament
The USDP chairman’s younger daughter May Phu Pwint Soe serves as the board chair of a private educational institution called the International Leadership University (ILU) in Naypyitaw’s Zabuthiri Township, which opened in Myanmar after the 2021 coup.
The university’s website says that its programmes and courses—accredited through bilateral government-to-government agreements—are open to both government employees and the public, at a time when education for most of Myanmar’s people is conspicuously limited by internal conflict and the resulting economic chaos since the coup.
Unlike Khin Yi’s son, who rarely attends his campaign events, May Phu Pwint Soe makes regular appearances at her father’s rallies. She was seen carrying a book with the ILU logo while wearing a green shirt—the colour associated with the military and its proxy party—at one of his events in Zayathiri Township on November 13.
Sources close to the family say May Phu Pwint Soe is an important surrogate for Khin Yi’s campaign.
A longtime member and executive of the USDP, Khin Yi became its vice chairman of the party at the end of 2019 during the civilian-led administration of the National League for Democracy (NLD).
While keeping a relatively low profile in his vice chairmanship during the government of the NLD party—led by internationally renowned democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi—he was involved in organising protests against the government, according to one of his personal associates, retired Lt-Gen Soe Thein.
Soe Thein, formerly minister of the president’s office under Thein Sein, claimed in a book about the NLD period that Khin Yi had organised at least 11 pro-military demonstrations before the 2021 coup and 11 afterwards.
Although junta chief Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing reappointed Khin Yi to his former position as minister of immigration and population some six months after ousting the elected NLD leaders, Khin Yi served as a junta minister for only a year before Min Aung Hlaing removed him in 2022, pushing him back to his work as a party official.
It remains to be seen what reward for years of loyalty might await Khin Yi after the military-run election, but it seems clear that an office high enough to match his ambitions will only be granted with the current junta chief’s approval.
