Myanmar's military has seized accounts associated with a charity of Hungarian-born US billionaire George Soros on claims it financed coup opponents, state media said Tuesday
BANGKOK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th March, 2021) Myanmar's military has seized accounts associated with a charity of Hungarian-born US billionaire George Soros on claims it financed coup opponents, state media said Tuesday.
The Open Society Myanmar (OSM) says it has been operating in the Southeast Asian county since 1994, funding activism through the years of military rule. Its budget in 2020 was $4.6 million.
The military announced through its Global New Light of Myanmar daily that it had taken control of $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 despot of $5 million it made with the state-run SME Development Bank in 2018. It exchanged $1.4 million into local currency and withdrew the cash a week after the February 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.
