by Linda Straker
- Naing Htut Aung approved as citizen of Grenada in June 2020
- His company was Myanmar military’s single largest donor in 2017
- No such information presented to Grenada authorities during 2019 application assessment
- No gazetted notice or Revocation Order published
The Government of Grenada has revoked the citizenship of Naing Htut Aung, a Myanmar arms dealer who was approved as a citizen of Grenada in 2020 by the previous New National Party (NNP) administration.
“He did get citizenship, but I think it was revoked; it was revoked” said Thomas Anthony, Chief Executive Officer of the Grenada Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Unit which was recently rebranded as the Investment Migration Agency (IMA). Anthony said that the arms dealer matter was one of the matters he had to deal with following his appointment to the post in April 2023.
In May 2024, a report published in Frontier Myanmar said that Western sanctions and domestic laws against dual citizenship did not stop military supplier Naing Htut Aung from securing a Grenadian passport and using it to invest his riches abroad.
The 2013 Citizenship by Investment Act has undergone several amendments and clearly states that applicants convicted of a serious crime and subject to a criminal investigation are considered a national security risk to Grenada.
In a September 2019 report on the Economic Interests of the Myanmar Military, published by the United Nations International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, Naing Htut Aung’s company was named as the military’s single largest donor across 3 fundraising ceremonies in 2017, with its contributions totalling more than $4.5 million.
He became a citizen in June 2020 and even though his Grenadian passport was issued 9 months after the fact-finding mission report was published and nearly 3 years after the donations were made, Grenada’s IMA told Frontier that no such information was presented to Grenada’s authorities at the time of assessment of Naing Htut Aung’s application, which was carried out in mid-2019.
Although Anthony has confirmed the revocation of Naing Htut Aung’s citizenship by the Government, there has been no Government Gazette notice or Revocation Order published as provided by Section 12 of the Grenada Citizenship by Investment Act No. 15 of 2013 informing the public that such action has been taken by the Minister responsible for citizenship.
Gazetted notices have shown that since launching the CBI in 2014, the Government has revoked the citizenship of 3 individuals, all Chinese citizens. The previous NNP administration did the revocations at different months during 2016.
