The United States has removed sanctions on the daughter of a Myanmar businessman accused of supporting the country's military-installed government.
The US Department of the Treasury removed Theint Win Htet from its sanctions list on Friday, following a lawsuit she filed in July arguing she has no role in her father's business.
The delisting comes days after reports that President Donald Trump's administration has reopened talks with Myanmar's military government, marking a break from years of US policy that sanctioned generals responsible for a 2021 coup against Myanmar's democratically elected government.
In January 2024, the Treasury Department under former President Joe Biden targeted the Shwe Byain Phyu Group of Companies, founded by Theint Win Htet's father, Thein Win Zaw, along with his family members. The department said the company supplied fuel to the military and owned at least 20 firms with close ties to military leadership.
Theint Win Htet had originally sought her removal in a lawsuit filed against the Biden administration, but that case was dismissed last year. She then filed a second complaint in July, contending she has no involvement in her father's business.
The sanctions had blocked her US credit cards, restricted her foreign bank accounts, and forced her to abandon her master's degree at Columbia University in New York. She now lives in Thailand with her mother, who was removed from the US sanctions list last year.
Her lawyer, Washington-based sanctions specialist Erich Ferrari, filed a notice with a federal court on Friday to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit following her delisting.
The advocacy group Justice For Myanmar condemned the Treasury Department's decision, saying Myanmar's military is escalating attacks on civilians.
"It is deplorable that the US government continues to delist Myanmar cronies and their family members that provide funding for the junta's terror," the group said.
The Biden administration had imposed sanctions on military officers and companies following the 2021 coup, which sparked a civil war that has killed approximately 100,000 people and displaced more than 3.5 million. Washington lifted sanctions in July last year on several other Myanmar nationals and a company accused of aiding the military.
