BANGKOK—In a May 19 court judgment that went almost unnoticed, Pye Phyo Tay Za, the son of junta-linked businessman Tay Za, lost a legal bid to have EU sanctions against him overturned and was ordered to pay the court costs for the Council of the European Union.
Pye Phyo had argued that he is neither a member of Burma's military government nor associated with it, and does not benefit from “the administration of that government.”
But his younger brother, Htet Tay Za, reportedly bragged in a notorious 2007 email, sent in response to new US sanctions on the junta, that even though "the US bans us, we're still [expletive deleted] cool in Singapore. We're sitting on the whole Burma GDP. We've got timber, gems and gas to be sold to other countries like Singapore, China, India and Russia."
Tay Za often flies to Singapore on business, where both Pye Pho and Htet were schooled. Two large banks in the city-state—OCBC and DBS—have denied functioning as repositories for billions of dollars of gas revenues derived from the Yadana pipeline project. Full Story
Tay Za (right) celebrates with his youngest daughter and sons Pye Phyo (left) and Htet (center). Photo: The Irrawaddy
