Myanmar seizes Soros' charity funds for helping coup opponents - State media
Anti-coup protesters walk behind a barricade as fire burns on Bayint Naung Bridge in Mayangone, Yangon, Myanmar March 16, 2021. REUTERS pic
BANGKOK: Myanmar's military has seized accounts associated with a charity of Hungarian-born US billionaire George Soros on claims it financed coup opponents, Sputnik quoted state media as saying Tuesday.
The Open Society Myanmar (OSM) says it has been operating in the Southeast Asian country since 1994, funding activism through the years of military rule. Its budget in 2020 was US$4.6 million.
The military announced through its Global New Light of Myanmar daily that it had taken control of US$3.81 million in the charity's accounts with four private banks.
OSM was accused of failing to obtain a permit from the central bank for a deposit of US$5 million it made with the state-run SME Development Bank in 2018. It exchanged US$1.4 million into local currency and withdrew the cash a week after the Feb 1 coup.
OSM's finance officer was brought in for interrogation last Friday over fears that the cash could be used to finance the anti-coup civil disobedience movement. Eleven other functionaries, including the charity's chair and vice chair, are wanted on suspicion of aiding the opposition.
-- BERNAMA
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