Ne Aung is another long-time Myanmar military crony that has built a sprawling conglomerate spanning banking, logging, energy and hotels. His businesses include the Lotte Hotel development on land leased from the Myanmar army. He is also involved in controversial hydropower dam projects on the Salween River.

It’s impossible to know just how much money this corrupt crony has amassed from his dirty deals, but a 2008 US embassy cable released by Wikileaks, described how Ne Aung and his brother, retired army major Pyi Aung, ‘use their family connections and close ties to the regime to amass great wealth’.

His other brother is junta national security advisor Admiral Moe Aung, who is sanctioned by the EU and Canada. Their father, Lieutenant Colonel Aung Thaung, was a minister in the former military junta and was a notorious hardliner who was sanctioned by the US in 2014 for ‘perpetuating violence, oppression, and corruption’. Ne Aung himself is currently sanctioned by Canada.

Since the military’s coup attempt, however, Ne Aung has been busy restructuring his businesses to evade sanctions. Ne Aung founded UAB Bank, of which he and his wife, Khin Moe Nyunt, were sole owners until early 2022, when they transferred their shares to a cousin (and known war criminal) just days after EU sanctions on IGE.

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