In today’s action, Treasury is designating Aung Pyae Sone and Khin Thiri Thet Mon pursuant to Executive Order 14014, “Blocking Property With Respect to the Situation in Burma,” for being foreign persons who are spouses or adult children of a person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 14014. Aung Pyae Sone and Khin Thiri Thet Mon are adult children of the commander-in-chief of the Burmese military forces, Min Aung Hlaing, whom OFAC designated on February 11, 2021, for being a leader or official of the military or security forces of Burma. Aung Pyae Sone and Khin Thiri Thet Mon have a variety of business holdings, which have directly benefitted from their father’s position and malign influence. Aung Pyae Sone won a 30-year permit in 2013 to lease land for Yangon Restaurant and Yangon Gallery in Rangoon without facing any competing bids. From 2013 to 2018, Aung Pyae Sone paid less than 1 percent of the rental rate compared with other properties in the same township, with the Rangoon government acknowledging that the national government dictated the low rental rates. Meanwhile, Khin Thiri Thet Mon owns Seventh Sense, a media production business with an exclusive contract with Nay Toe, an actor who features prominently in marketing for Mytel, the mobile telephone operator established by Min Aung Hlaing.
On February 10, 2021, the President, invoking the authority of, inter alia, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701–1706) (IEEPA), issued Executive Order (E.O.) 14014 of February 10, 2021, “Blocking Property With Respect to the Situation in Burma” (86 FR 9429, February 12, 2021).
In E.O. 14014, the President determined that the situation in and in relation to Burma, and in particular the February 1, 2021 coup, in which the military overthrew the democratically elected civilian government of Burma and unjustly arrested and detained government leaders, politicians, human rights defenders, journalists, and religious leaders, thereby rejecting the will of the people of Burma as expressed in elections held in November 2020 and undermining the country's democratic transition and rule of law, constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States and declared a national emergency to deal with that threat.
OFAC is issuing the Burma Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR part 525 (the “Regulations”), to implement E.O. 14014, pursuant to authorities delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury in E.O. 14014. A copy of E.O. 14014 appears in appendix A to this part.
The Regulations are being published in abbreviated form at this time for the purpose of providing immediate guidance to the public. OFAC intends to supplement this part 525 with a more comprehensive set of regulations, which may include additional interpretive and definitional guidance, general licenses, and other regulatory provisions. The appendix to the Regulations will be removed when OFAC supplements this part with a more comprehensive set of regulations.
