When she applied for admission to a master’s degree in management at HEC, Theint Win Htet seemed to have the ideal profile: studies at New York University, internship at the Burmese bank CB Bank… As she herself writes on his LinkedIn account: “Having lived on three different continents, I have learned to work and connect with people of diverse cultural backgrounds, a crucial skill for dedicated teamwork. » A profile highly sought after by the prestigious business school of Jouy-en-Josas (Yvelines), which likes to present itself as “ a real melting pot”, with its 994 management master’s students, two-thirds of whom are foreigners, from 67 different nationalities.
Except that Theint Win Htet comes from a country targeted by numerous sanctions since the February 2021 coup and whose economy is under the control of the army. Without this arousing the slightest suspicion, the business school welcomed the student with open arms – the two years of master’s tuition cost up to 53,200 euros – in the summer of 2023, without additional checks.
A few months later, on January 31, 2024, the HEC student fell under American sanctions. His father, Thein Win Zaw, head of the Shwe Byain Phyu Group of Companies (SBPG), is a businessman who draws his fortune from his proximity to the Burmese junta. His companies are accused by Washington “to have materially assisted, financed or provided financial, material or technological support, or to have provided goods or services, to MEHL”, a conglomerate controlled by the Burmese army. Through several joint ventures, some of which are under European sanctions, SBPG shares, with the Burmese military, the profits linked to the exploitation of timber, the importation of fuel or the extraction of jade and stones precious.
“Many elements suggest that Theint Win Htet’s lifestyle and education are financed by money from entities or people under sanctions”, says Lily Ravon, lawyer at Bourdon & Associés, contacted by the NGO Justice for Myanmar (Myanmar is the official name of Burma). Added to this are suspicions of money laundering, the funds coming indirectly, according to the lawyer, from terrorist activities within the meaning of European law: the Burmese junta is accused of torture, attacks against civilians, in particular ethnic and religious minorities, and to destroy the political and constitutional foundations of the country.
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