An award-winning actress was sentenced to a year in prison with hard labour in a Yangon court on Thursday after being convicted of embezzling the equivalent of about US$85,500 from a construction contractor, according to local media.
May Than Nu, 58, who has been in the public eye since her role in classic 1985 Myanmar film Thingyan Moe, was found guilty of cheating under section 420 of the Penal Code at Yankin township court.
San San Myint, the plaintiff, first brought the case to court in 2016, accusing May Than Nu of embezzling 120 million kyats, reported News Eleven.
The following year, Eastern Yangon district court ordered the five-time Myanmar academy award winning actress to pay 1 million kyats ($670) month until the reportedly embezzled amount had been reimbursed but the payments stopped after three months, according to the news outlet.
San San Myint told 7Day TV she gave the actress the money for a joint construction project on an apartment building, and when the project did not come to fruition, May Than Nu did not return it.
San San Myint, who now works as a tailor, told media she had known May Than Nu for 30 years. She said the embezzlement had “ruined” her life and thanked the court for a “just and fair decision.”
May Than Nu’s ex-husband, director Zin Yaw Maung Maung, posted on Facebook that he and their son felt “immensely sad” about the case.
“We will also be meeting the media at a time suitable for us,” he wrote. “For the time being, we are doing the best we can for his mother.”
