Myanmar’s opposition National Unity Government (NUG) has appointed an American businessman who was once arrested in Myanmar for growing cannabis as its envoy to Washington to enable “effective support from the US” in Myanmar’s fight against the military junta.
John Fredric Todoroki was appointed as envoy to the US by NUG Acting President Duwa Lashi La on April 4, according to the appointment letter viewed by The Irrawaddy.
The letter says the initial appointment shall be for six months starting immediately and is extendable and unpaid.
It says Todoroki will identify ways to advance the NUG’s relationships with high-level members of President Trump’s administration and the US Congress in order to secure financial and material support, including for civilian protection and humanitarian assistance for Myanmar.
Since the coup in 2021, the junta has been struggling with nationwide armed resistance against its rule. It has launched indiscriminate airstrikes and shelling in resistance-controlled areas, killing civilians.
Founded following the 2021 coup, the NUG is made up of lawmakers from the ousted National League for Democracy government and its ethnic allies. Set up to challenge the regime’s legitimacy at home and abroad while commanding its own resistance troops to fight against the junta, it has also been lobbying for more international recognition and support.
The envoy will work and consult closely with U Kyaw Zaw, the NUG spokesperson and an advisor to the acting president. The letter states that “this appointment shall not be made public.”
Who is Todoroki?
Todoroki was arrested in Myanmar under the Anti-Narcotics Law in 2019 for allegedly operating a marijuana plantation in Mandalay Region.
After spending nearly four months in detention at Myingyan Prison, he was granted medical bail by a court. Following the court’s rejection of his appeal to scrap the case, he used his connections in the US government to flee the country on a new passport via Thailand and returned to the US.
According to Intelligence Online, Todoroki once partnered with businessman Robert Cristiano to run L88 Investments, which purchases US government-owned assets and previously subleased its Washington office space from BGR Group, a lobbying firm.
In 2012, “the company purchased a Prague building that is home to the news organization Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. However, L88 came under fire in 2015 when The Daily Beast reported that Todoroki and Cristiano stood to benefit from a proposed plan by former US Congressman Ed Royce to reform US international broadcasting,” Intelligence Online reported.
The news outlet added that L88 was also the subject of a warning issued by the American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic, which said it received complaints about nonpayments regarding the Prague building.
The Daily Beast reported that “the complaints alleged Todoroki urged those to whom he owed money not to press him for payment because he had connections with the Republican Party and the US government.”
Todoroki and Cristiano also created an organization called the Prague Freedom Foundation, which claimed to support independent media. According to the Daily Beast however, “US international broadcasting insiders suspect it was set up as a front to increase L88’s credibility in its strategic goal to acquire State Department properties and influence public broadcasting.”
Intelligence Online reported that, according to a 2017 financial disclosure, the organization hired Trump’s former acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell for public affairs consulting.
When asked for comment on Todoroki’s appointment, NUG spokesperson U Kyaw Zaw, with whom Todoroki will work closely, told The Irrawaddy: “I don’t have any comments at this time.”
In the appointment letter to Todoroki, Acting President Duwa Lashi La said the US under Trump presents one of the greatest opportunities to help Myanmar free itself from military dictatorship, and that Todoroki’s “willingness to commit to this endeavor as well as your skills and expertise represents a tremendous value to the people of Myanmar and are indicative of your abilities to represent the Office of the President of the National Unity Government of Myanmar in the United States of America.”
The US has supported Myanmar’s anti-regime movement and has official engagements with the NUG. In 2023, the US passed the BURMA Act to provide non-lethal assistance for Myanmar but it has failed to deliver anything under the legislation.
Analysts pointed out that the NUG’s appointment of the US envoy could anger China, from whom the NUG has been trying to earn official recognition as the legitimate government of Myanmar.
Beijing continues to engage and support the junta and views the NUG and Myanmar’s prodemocracy forces as being too close to the West. It also discourages ethnic armed organizations under its influence from working with the NUG.
