Behind the Crown: Miss Universe Plunged into Legal Scandals After 2025 Pageant

The Miss Universe Organization is facing its most serious crisis in years, as legal troubles engulf both of its owners in Thailand and Mexico.

Thai media mogul Anne Jakkaphong Jakrajutatip, who bought the pageant in 2022 through JKN Global, is now the subject of an arrest warrant in Bangkok after failing to attend a fraud-related court hearing tied to a long-running financial dispute.

Thai regulators have already fined JKN for publishing “false or misleading” financial statements, while the company struggles with more than 3 billion baht in debt. At the same time, her co-owner, Mexican businessman Raúl Rocha Cantú, is under investigation in Mexico for alleged drug, weapons and fuel trafficking, part of a broader case in which 13 arrest orders were issued, according to the Mexican attorney general.

These legal shocks arrive directly after one of the most turbulent Miss Universe seasons in recent history: high-profile walkouts, judges abruptly resigning, accusations of vote-rigging, and fierce online disputes over the crowning of Mexico’s Fátima Bosch.

What was supposed to be the pageant’s global celebration has instead become a high-stakes international scandal involving regulatory investigations, criminal probes, and unanswered questions about the organization’s future.