The Miss Universe organisation finds itself under a heavy cloud of legal trouble, a saga that unfolded almost as soon as the spotlights dimmed on its most recent pageant. What should have been a quiet cooldown period after the coronation has instead become a swirl of court orders, financial alarms and cross-border investigations involving two countries and two powerful names behind the brand.
The competition, once part of Donald Trump’s business orbit in the United States, is now owned by Anne Jakkaphong Jakrajutatip, a Thai media executive who acquired it in 2022 through her company, JKN Global. Her absence from a scheduled court hearing in Bangkok this week sparked immediate consequences. A district court announced that an arrest warrant had been issued after she failed to appear in a case involving a disputed investment worth 30 million baht, roughly nine hundred and thirty thousand dollars. Local reports indicate that her whereabouts remain unclear.
That missed court date sits on top of deeper financial troubles that have dogged JKN Global since 2023, when the company began to fall behind on payments to investors. By early 2024, it sought rehabilitation through Thailand’s bankruptcy court and now carries an estimated three billion baht in debt. The strain grew more visible when Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission sanctioned both Jakrajutatip and the company for financial disclosures the regulator described as misleading. The penalty cost four million baht in fines, and although Jakrajutatip stepped down from her official roles, she continues to hold shares in the company.
Read also: Miss Universe 2025 In Turmoil: Mexican Queen Insulted, Quits
A separate strand of the story winds into Mexico, where businessman Raúl Rocha Cantu, who agreed last year to acquire half of the Miss Universe brand, is facing scrutiny of his own. Mexican prosecutors confirmed this week that he is under investigation for possible involvement in trafficking of weapons, narcotics and fuel along the Mexico–Guatemala corridor. Thirteen people have been charged so far, however Cantu has not been formally named.
The recent pageant concluded on November twenty one, closing a season marked by whispers of irregularities and claims that the competition lacked fairness. Those complaints now sit beside a widening legal drama, one that threatens to overshadow the Miss Universe crown long after the cameras have been packed away.