Since the Myanmar military’s illegal coup attempt, Myanmar crony Ko Ko Latt, also known as Shwe O Latt, has expanded his business, providing financial and political support to a brutal junta. He has done this while running a network of businesses in the USA, UK, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore and the UAE, while transacting with entities sanctioned in some of the very countries he operates in.

An examination of leaked official documents and publicly available information, including from company websites and social media accounts, reveals new details showing that Ko Ko Latt’s K K Business Group became a major trader of junta timber, operates a hotel with a lease from the military conglomerate Myanma Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL), and established an aviation venture that claims experience in military flights.

Ko Ko Latt has also provided political support for the junta through his appointment as Iceland’s honorary consul to Myanmar on February 23, 2026. That appointment was withdrawn on May 15 after Ko Ko Latt voluntarily tendered his resignation, following a review launched by Iceland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs into Ko Ko Latt’s business with the junta and EU sanctioned entities which Justice For Myanmar raised in a letter to Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir.

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K K Business Group’s growing network of companies

K K Business Group of Companies, also known as Gulf Group, describes itself as a "leading conglomerate". Established during the former military junta in 2004, it currently consists of at least 15 Myanmar companies that span international trade, timber, aviation, security services, logistics, hotels, construction, engineering, insurance and financial services. Its longstanding Myanmar companies, mostly set up under the former junta, include:

• K K Myanmar Company Limited and K K International Company Limited, which appear to be most active in the group’s international trade;
• Asia Pacific Business Group, a public company seeking a stock exchange listing under the junta that is engaged in the car trade;
• The shipping and logistics firm Gulf Agency Company Limited;
• The construction and engineering companies King Gate Development Company Limited and Family Business Group Engineering Company Limited;
• The Sheraton Yangon Hotel owned Family Business Group Hotel Limited;
• The travel and tourism companies Chase Travels & Tours Company Limited and Apex International Company Limited.

Many of these companies have changed names multiple times, making their activities harder to identify.

Since the coup attempt, K K Business Group has gone through a major expansion, establishing at least 6 new companies in Myanmar, including in high-risk sectors that are tightly controlled or licenced by the junta. These include:

• K K Aviation Support Services Company Limited, set up in 2023;
• Saman Petroleum Cooperation Company Limited, a foreign-owned company set up in 2023 and registered for the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas, a sector that is one of the junta’s biggest foreign revenue earners;
• Bavarian Investment Company Limited, a foreign-owned company set up in 2024 and registered for real estate and construction services;
• K K International General Insurance Agency Company Limited and K K International Life Insurance Agency Company Limited, both set up in 2024;
• K K Special Security Service Company Limited, set up in 2025 and registered under public administration and defence.

Outside Myanmar, K K Business Group claims to have offices in the USA, Germany, the UK, Singapore, Malaysia and the UAE. The company’s USA branch, K K USA, LLC, was established in 2016 and remains registered to an address in Los Angeles, California, with San San Win as the listed member and CEO. The Malaysian branch, K K Malaysia General Trading Sdn. Bhd. was incorporated in 2022 and is registered to an address in Selangor with two other directors and shareholders alongside Ko Ko Latt: Datin Dr. Norlaili Binti Alias and Muhammad Arif bin Mansor. As of 2025, K K Business Group lists an active Singapore address that matches a previous defunct aviation company, Asia Win International Pte. Ltd., which was delisted in 2018 and an active address in Dubai. In the UK, Ko Ko Latt established a company in 2023, which was dissolved in 2025 with no other companies existing in his name there. Justice For Myanmar was unable to identify companies in the K K Business Group network in Germany. Given K K Business Group’s ongoing business with sanctioned entities, there is a high risk that operations in the EU, UK and USA could be used to facilitate trade or launder funds that circumvents sanctions.

Ko Ko Latt, in his letter addressed to Justice For Myanmar, disputed the label “crony”, stating, “I am a minority businessman who built businesses over many years through private effort, international investment, lawful commercial activities, and humanitarian engagement.” The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar has described crony companies as those with “strong and persistent business and familial links between the Tatmadaw [and] its conglomerates.” K K Business Group and Ko Ko Latt not only have close commercial links with the Myanmar military, they have also made donations to the Yangon Region Military Command, military hospitals and police, which is commonly used to curry favour and demonstrate loyalty.

In addition, Ko Ko Latt provided false legitimacy to the junta by presenting his letter of accreditation as Icelandic honorary consul  to the junta foreign minister; gave support to the junta’s foreign ministry for diplomacy training; and sponsored a Nepal-Myanmar Trade and Tourism Expo in 2025 that was attended by the junta’s commerce minister, among other activities. These close ties with the junta and MEHL makes the label “crony” a fitting description.

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From small time player to major junta teak exporter

In the years following the Myanmar military’s February 2021 coup attempt, K K Business Group became one of the biggest buyers of timber from the state-owned enterprise, Myanma Timber Enterprise (MTE), which is illegally under the junta’s control. MTE effectively controls the timber sector, including through licencing, harvesting, extracting, milling, and timber sales. Through MTE, the junta takes a percentage of export revenue, while it collects tax on timber sales through the Internal Revenue Department (IRD). These funds help finance junta atrocities. As a result of MTE’s role in funding the junta, the enterprise has been sanctioned by the EU, USA, UK and Canada.

Leaked records of MTE auctions on file with Justice For Myanmar, show that K K Myanmar was the single biggest purchaser of timber in 2022 and 2023 out of more than 40 companies. K K won at least 190 lots across 10 MTE auctions, which together amounted to thousands of tonnes of timber.

Commercially available Turkish import records show that K K Myanmar exported at least 179.5 tonnes of teak to Turkey across ten shipments from April 2023 to May 2024, corresponding with the period that K K Myanmar was purchasing teak in MTE auctions. In the records, the end buyer is unknown and only the Taiwanese logistics company Clare Freight International is listed, which was the shipper. Justice For Myanmar previously identified the Myanmar branch of Clare Group for its role in shipping teak to the USA, circumventing sanctions. The fact the shipments are to Turkey is significant because Turkey has been documented as an entry point for illegal Myanmar teak to flow into the EU. Myanmar teak is in high demand, spurring a lucrative market to import illegal teak into the EU and USA, bypassing sanctions and regulations against the sale of illegal timber. Shipbuilders in particular have long used Myanmar teak for its high silicone and resin content that makes it more durable in wet environments.

February 2025 documents that K K Myanmar submitted to the junta’s commerce ministry to seek approval for the export of a shipment of teak give insight into the supply chain from MTE to Turkey. The documents detail K K Myanmar Company Limited as the owner and seller of 540 pieces of teak conversions totalling 32 tonnes to the Turkish yacht maker Harman Turizm Yatcilik, which does business in the EU. The listed value of the teak is US$136,520, with payment made through Myanma Foreign Trade Bank (MFTB), a bank under the illegal control of the junta and sanctioned by the USA, Canada and Australia, meaning the payment transaction itself may constitute a sanctions violation for any party involved in processing it.

The document references multiple MTE delivery orders (specifically MTE DO. 205, 206, 230, 231, 232/23-24(L), referencing fiscal year 2023-24 lots), which are issued by MTE on receipt of payment for the sale of timber and are required for export.

Another invoice that K K Myanmar submitted to the junta’s commerce ministry to seek approval to export Myanmar teak detailed a shipment to the Thai company W2E Company Limited in Bangkok. The contract consisted of teak scantling and teak conversion totalling 12 tonnes with a value of US$33,607, again through K K Myanmar’s MFTB account.

K K Business Group’s teak trading activities reflect a significant expansion compared to the limited figures available from before the military’s coup attempt, published by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). The 2016-2017 EITI forestry report shows that K K Myanmar exported 10 tonnes of teak in the 2016-17 fiscal year, ranking only 95th in a list of Myanmar companies by teak export volume, one of the smallest documented.

K K Business Group was open about its timber business, listing “saw timber” as one of its fields of operation on its website that included a photo of sawn timber planks stacked and banded into bundles. Yet, despite the evidence, Ko Ko Latt denies engaging in the trading of timber or transacting with MTE. In a letter to Justice For Myanmar, he said, “Neither I personally nor my companies purchased timber from MTE, owned timber, or engaged in timber trading activities. Where services were provided, our role was limited to logistics, forwarding, transportation coordination, and related agency support activities on behalf of third parties. We did not purchase or own the timber involved in such activities”.

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K K Business Group’s hotel that funds war criminals

K K Business Group operates Central Hotel, an 82-room hotel in downtown Yangon that was developed by the MEHL subsidiary Nawaday Hotel and Travel Services. K K Business Group leased the hotel from MEHL, conducted renovations that increased the property’s value, and now operate the hotel. K K Business Group’s link to MEHL through Central Hotel was first reported by Myanmar Now, an independent Myanmar media.

K K Business Group and Ko Ko Latt have been public about their operation of Central Hotel. For instance, in March 2025, Ko Ko Latt posted on his personal Facebook page a letter of appreciation to a room attendant, signed by him as “the Management of the Central Hotel” on K K Business Group letterhead. In August 2025, K K Business Group promoted Central Hotel in a British Chamber of Commerce business and trade expo, posting about it on the group’s Facebook page. And the group has promoted Central Hotel on social media and posted job openings that include the post of hotel general manager.

Despite these facts, Ko Ko Latt stated, “Neither I personally nor my companies have had any direct relationship with UMEHL [former name for MEHL]. Our involvement was limited to the operation of a fried chicken restaurant outlet under a separate private lease arrangement with a third-party company and not with UMEHL”.

While Ko Ko Latt acknowledged that K K Business Group undertook renovations for Central Hotel, he says that it was with “Marcus Myanmar Company” and not with MEHL.

However, a letter that Ko Ko Latt submitted to the junta’s commerce ministry in December 2025 gives a clear picture of K K Business Group’s role in the hotel and links to MEHL. The document states that K K Myanmar Company Limited is operating Central Hotel under a 15-year lease from MEHL. In the letter, Ko Ko Latt seeks to clarify his use of foreign currency to purchase US$183,793 worth of hotel equipment from the Chinese company Eitai (Xiamen) New Energy Technology. According to a leaked letter from the junta’s Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC), K K Myanmar was importing the hotel equipment under MIC permit 438/2024.

K K Business Group’s aviation business

In 2023, K K Business Group set up the company, K K Aviation Support Services, operating in a sector where there is little boundary between civil aviation and the junta’s air force. As Justice For Myanmar has documented, the Myanmar military relies on companies operating in the civil aviation sector to undertake maintenance, repair and overhaul services and to procure aircraft, bypassing sanctions. Risks of operating in the sector are well known. For instance, in 2024 the USA issued a supplemental business advisory warning that “Burma’s commercial aviation sector – including services, components, and fuel – is deeply intertwined with the military’s aviation operations”.

It is in this context that K K Aviation Support Services was established in 2023,  well after the military launched its coup attempt and as the junta was increasingly deploying its air force to wage indiscriminate airstrikes against civilians, including children. According to the company’s website, K K Aviation provides services that include aircraft handling and ground support; overflight and landing permits; spare parts support; fuel coordination and passenger services.

Ko Ko Latt told Justice For Myanmar, “Our aviation-related activities were limited strictly to civilian aviation support services, including overflight permit coordination and ground handling assistance. We were not involved in aircraft importation, military aviation, arms, spare parts, fuel supply, or defence-related procurement activities”.

However, in its description of passenger services offered, the company specifies its military experience: “K K Aviation team has extensive experience handling all kinds of VIP, passenger Government Delegation, cargo, and military flights even at international airports. K K Aviation can provide the services as follows”.

This is the second known aviation company that K K Business Group established, after Asia Win International (formerly Asia Win Aviation), which operated in Singapore from 2011 to 2018. According to an archive of the K K Business Group website, Asia Win Aviation offered services including aircraft procurement and passenger and cargo military charter flights

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Sanction Ko Ko Latt and K K Business Group

K K Business Group is a longstanding, crony conglomerate that under Ko Ko Latt’s leadership and ownership, plays a significant role in exporting Myanmar teak, generating revenue for the junta through MTE timber purchases and tax payments to its Internal Revenue Department. Separately, K K Business Group provides revenue to the sanctioned military conglomerate MEHL through its lease of Central Hotel. By doing so, K K Business Group and its network of companies, directors and owners financially support a military junta that is engaged in ongoing atrocities that include mass killings, rape and sexual violence, torture, arbitrary arrests, indiscriminate airstrikes and shelling, and mass forced displacement.

K K Business Group has direct business with EU, UK, USA, Australian and Canadian sanctioned entities, including MTE, MEHL and MFTB. Allowing Ko Ko Latt and his businesses to operate in countries that include the USA, UK and Germany, carry risks of money laundering through the potential investment of the proceeds of business with sanctioned entities, and through the potential of businesses in those jurisdictions facilitating trade with sanctioned entities.

Justice For Myanmar calls on the USA, UK, EU, Canada and Australia to respond to K K Business Group’s continued business with sanctioned entities by imposing targeted sanctions on the K K Business Group and its principals, including Ko Ko Latt.

The illegal Myanmar junta is intensifying its campaign of terror against the Myanmar people, enabled by the flow of funds from cronies like K K Business Group. The international community must respond and block the junta’s access to the resources to carry out its terror.

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Correction (29.5.26): K K Business Group currently consists of at least 15 Myanmar companies. An earlier version stated that there were at least 16 Myanmar companies, counting Noble Yangon Construction Company Limited, which is in fact the previous name of King Gate Development Company Limited.