US lifts sanctions on daughter of military-linked Myanmar businessman

Delisting comes days after Trump administration reportedly reopened talks with Myanmar’s government.

The entrance to the US Treasury Department [File: Ken Cedeno/Reuters]

The United States has removed sanctions on the daughter of a Myanmar businessman accused of supporting the military-installed government.

The US Department of the Treasury removed Theint Win Htet from its sanctions list on Friday, according to its website, after she sued them in July.

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The decision followed a Reuters news agency report that said US President Donald Trump’s administration has opened talks with Myanmar’s government, a break from years of US policy that sanctioned the generals responsible for a coup in 2021 against Myanmar’s democratically elected government.

In January 2024, the Treasury Department under former President Joe Biden’s administration targeted the Shwe Byain Phyu Group of Companies, which was founded by Theint Win Htet’s father, Thein Win Zaw, along with his family.

The department said the company supplied fuel to the military and owned at least 20 firms with close ties to the military leadership.

Theint Win Htet originally requested her removal in a lawsuit filed against the Biden administration. That case was dismissed last year. She then filed a second complaint in July, arguing that she has no role in her father’s business.

The sanctions had blocked her US credit cards, restricted her foreign bank accounts and forced her to abandon her master’s degree at Columbia University in New York. She now lives in Thailand with her mother, who was taken off the US sanctions list last year.

Theint Win Htet’s lawyer, Washington, DC-based sanctions specialist Erich Ferrari, filed a notice with the federal court in the US capital on Friday to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit after her delisting.

The group Justice For Myanmar has condemned the Treasury Department’s decision, saying Myanmar’s military is escalating attacks on civilians.

“It is deplorable that the US government continues to delist Myanmar cronies and their family members that provide funding for the junta’s terror,” the ‌group ‌said.

The Biden administration imposed sanctions on military officers and companies after the 2021 coup, which sparked a civil war that has killed about 100,000 people and displaced more than 3.5 million.

Washington lifted sanctions in July last year on several other Myanmar nationals and a company accused of aiding the military.

据报道，特朗普政府重启与缅甸政府的谈判几天后，该国被从股市除名。

美国财政部入口 [图片：Ken Cedeno/路透社]

美国已解除对一名缅甸商人女儿的制裁，该商人被指控支持缅甸军政府。

据美国财政部网站消息，在Theint Win Htet于7月起诉该部门后，美国财政部于周五将她从制裁名单中移除。

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此前路透社报道称，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普的政府已与缅甸政府展开对话，这与美国多年来对2021年推翻缅甸民选政府的政变将军们实施制裁的政策截然不同。

2024 年 1 月，时任总统乔·拜登执政期间的财政部将目标锁定在 Shwe Byain Phyu 集团公司，该集团公司由 Theint Win Htet 的父亲 Thein Win Zaw 及其家人创立。

该部门表示，该公司向军方供应燃料，并拥有至少 20 家与军方领导层关系密切的公司。

Theint Win Htet 最初在针对拜登政府提起的诉讼中要求将其除名。该案已于去年被驳回。随后，她于今年7月提起第二次诉讼，辩称她与父亲的公司没有任何关系。

制裁冻结了她的美国信用卡，限制了她的海外银行账户，迫使她放弃了在纽约哥伦比亚大学的硕士学位。她现在和母亲住在泰国，她的母亲去年被从美国制裁名单中移除。

Theint Win Htet 的律师，华盛顿特区的制裁专家 Erich Ferrari，于周五向美国首都的联邦法院提交了一份通知，表示在她被从制裁名单中除名后，将自愿撤销诉讼。

“缅甸正义”组织谴责了财政部的决定，称缅甸军方正在升级对平民的袭击。

该组织表示：“令人遗憾的是，美国政府继续将为缅甸军政府恐怖主义活动提供资金的亲信及其家人从制裁名单中除名。”

2021 年政变后，拜登政府对军官和公司实施了制裁。这场政变引发了内战，造成约 10 万人死亡，350 多万人流离失所。

去年7月，华盛顿解除了对其他几名缅甸国民和一家被指控协助军方的公司的制裁。