Mining magnate who funded ultranationalists to serve five more years for money laundering

A regime-controlled court in Naypyitaw handed down an additional five-year prison sentence for money laundering late last year to Soe Htun Shein, an imprisoned mining tycoon known as a hardline supporter of Buddhist ultranationalists, according to his business associates. Soe Htun Shein—the former chair of the National Prosperity Gold Production Group (NPGPG)—had previously been convicted of violating the Public Property Protection Act in September 2023 and sentenced to 10 years for involvement in unlicensed mining. He later appealed this conviction and sought release from Yamethin Prison in southern Mandalay Region, but the appeal was not upheld. He also unsuccessfully petitioned for the reinstatement of NPGPG’s licence to operate the Moehti Moemi gold mining project some 16 miles southeast of Yamethin, which was taken over by the giant military-owned holding company Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) in February 2023. An additional charge brought under the Anti-Money Laundering Law—for failure to pay a required tax of 23 viss (83 lbs) of gold to the authorities—led to the additional five-year prison term, a director at NPGPG told Myanmar Now. “Authorities said it had not been properly transferred to the government,” a NPGPG executive told Myanmar Now, referring to the gold Soe Htun Shein had failed to transfer. “He was initially sentenced to just six months in prison for it, but after he filed the appeal, the term was lengthened to five years.” “The revised ruling also includes the confiscation of a building in Naypyitaw owned by Soe Htun Shein,” the executive continued. “There had been no order to confiscate his property before. This is what the appeal caused instead of reducing his sentence.” Plans are in motion to submit yet another appeal, according to the same NPGPG director, who added that authorities will allow Soe Htun Shein to have visiting hours with relatives and acquaintances while being held at Yamethin. Myanmar Now contacted Soe Htun Shein’s legal team with queries about his case and sentencing but did not receive a response. NPGPG secured the rights to operate at the 6,000-acre Moehti Moemi gold mining project in 2011. The civilian-led National League for Democracy (NLD) government ordered a suspension of the project’s operations in 2017 due to the NPGPG’s failure to pay back taxes equivalent to more than 1,000 viss of gold (3,600 lbs). Thai and Myanmar authorities collaborated to apprehend Soe Htun Shein in 2019, after he fled to Thailand to escape the tax debt. The Myanmar military ousted the NLD government in February 2021, with MEC assuming control of the Moehti Moemi project two years later. Some six months after the takeover, in June 2023, Soe Htun Shein sent a letter to coup leader Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing. He expressed concern about MEC allocating mining rights at Moehti Moemi to some 30 other companies without NPGPG’s approval and urged a revision of MEC’s profit-sharing agreement. Soe Htun Shein reportedly proposed that the NPGPG resume operations at Moehti Moemi, sharing seven viss (25.2 lbs) of gold with MEC and six viss (21.6 lbs) with another junta-owned mining company each month, as well as paying a monthly mineral tax of three viss (10.8 lbs). Not only infamous for nonpayment of tax during Myanmar’s period of civilian-led government, Soe Htun Shein also gained notoriety for donating to and financing the activities of religious ultranationalist associations whose members, including the firebrand monk Wirathu, preached hate against Myanmar’s non-Buddhist minorities.

Mining magnate who funded ultranationalists to serve five more years for money laundering

Having charged Soe Htun Shein under anti-money laundering laws for failing to turn over gold to the authorities, a junta court added five years to prison time he was already serving for charges related to unlicensed mining

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