RANGOON — A local court in Rangoon’s Latha Township sentenced U Kyaw Myint, former owner of Father Land Construction, to five years in prison with labor for fraud on Monday.
U Kyaw Myint was charged under sections 420 and 468 of Burma’s Penal Code for fraudulence and forgery.
The charges were filed by landowner U Soe Min Htet in connection with the construction of MEI Business Tower, a 12-story building on Pansodan Road in Rangoon’s Kyauktada Township, after U Kyaw Myint failed to finish construction within an agreed timetable and forged the landowner’s signature on his application for a construction permit.
Charges were filed against him in September 2014. After he was brought to trial in December, he was freed on 100 million kyats (about US$75,000) bail, but then fled. In January 2015, he turned himself in.
The lawyer acting for U Kyaw Myint said the pre-verdict detention period would be deducted from his sentence.
With around two years of trial deducted from his sentence, U Kyaw Myint will only have to serve about three years.
In early 2012, he took 900 million kyats from award-winning actress Wah Wah Win Shwe to build a high-rise on land previously occupied by Su Htuu Pan Cinema in downtown Rangoon.
Disputes arose between the two parties after he failed to begin construction. In April of the same year, the differences were settled thanks to the help of prominent monk Sitagu Sayadaw and the contract was terminated.
U Kyaw Myint has yet to face charges filed against him in Bahan and Botahtaung township courts.
He allegedly sold pre-construction apartments that he never built or completed, and in some cases sold them to multiple buyers, along with cheating stakeholders of their shares.
