Myanmar has detained an employee of George Soros’s philanthropic foundation and frozen its bank accounts in the country, in what observers said was part of a push to accuse deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi of promoting foreign interests. 

Phyu Pa Pa Thaw, Open Society Myanmar’s finance director, is in custody and police are looking to arrest and interrogate another nine staff and two board members, according to the billionaire philanthropist’s foundation. The state-owned Global New Light of Myanmar this week accused the group of financial misconduct, alleging it withdrew cash after last month’s military coup “without following the necessary rules and regulations”. 

The paper published a picture of Aung San Suu Kyi meeting Soros in New York in 2016, and listed several other meetings involving the two or Alexander Soros, his son, in Myanmar and the US. It said that OSM’s finance director was “being interrogated since 12 March 2021”.