CEO of Miss Universe accused of having tried to mingle with a 2023 competition

• The CEO of Miss Universe, Anne Jakrajutatip, was accused of having tried to promote Miss Thailand in the Miss Universe 2023 competition.
• A former Miss Universe judge told the initiate of Affairs Jakrajutip, the president of the time, Paula Shugart, said that Thailand in the first five.
• Shugart resigned from the Miss Universe organization during the 2023 competition.

In 2023, on the eve of the Miss Universe finals in Salvador, Paula Shugart announced the end of his 23 -year term as president of the Miss Universe organization. His resignation was greeted by a shock and dressings of thousands of fans of competitions in the stands.

However, Denise White, one of the judges of the November 2023 competition, was not surprised. White told Business Insider that the CEO of Miss Universe, Anne Jakrajutatip, had tried to put pressure on Shugart to promote Miss Thailand in the competition, wanting the competitor to be carried out in the first five during the competition.

Jakrajutatip and his company in Thailand, JKN Global, bought the Miss Universe organization for $ 20 million in October 2022.

“I really cannot comment at that time in the light of my current dispute against Anne in Thailand,” said Shugart when Bi contacted her to comment, noting that she had a criminal complaint against Jakrajutatip for defamation before the court in Thailand. “However, I have not seen anything in Denise’s comments that I would refute.”

According to ABC News, Jakrajutatip denied any reprehensible act in the complaint of Shugart against her.

The representatives of Jakrajutatip and the Miss Universe organization did not respond to a request for comments from Business Insider.

“She said,” I cannot believe that Anne tells me that, whatever happens, we have to make sure that Thailand is in the top five, “said White, recalling her conversation with Shugart. White added that Shugart refused to comply with the request of Jakrajutatip, although the competitor of Thailand was selected as the first finalist at the end of his own will.

Vote “above the board of directors”

White, a former Miss Oregon who participated in Miss USA in 1994, specializes in crisis management for high -level athletes and celebrities. After judging Miss USA 2018, she reconnected with Shugart and was hired as a consultant for the organization in 2022.

The Miss Universe organization historically did not have her say to who goes to the top five. However, the organization has helped select the semi-finalists of the competition for almost 20 years, a well-known fact of candidates.

In a New Yorker article in 2018, Miss Canada 2012 Adwoa Yamoah told the magazine that Donald Trump – who owned the Miss USA organization, including Miss USA, from 1996 to 2015 – “essentially told us that he had chosen nine of the first 15”.

However, according to a long -standing employee of Miss USA, the organization had no contribution to the results once the preliminary competition is finished and the 15 best candidates were announced on live television.

The television final of each year included a group of different judges – often celebrities, models and former Miss Universe winners – which would classify competitors according to their performance in swimsuit, evening dress and interview tours. Their votes have always been checked by the accounting office Ernst & Young.

“The judges made the decision, and Ernst & Young would rely on it,” said Miss USA employee, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. “Ernst & Young was very proud that it was above the edge.”

A former employee different from Miss Universe, who also asked to remain anonymous, confirmed that the Miss Universe 2023 competition had been audited by Ernst & Young, but that the organization of the organization with accounting did not continue in 2024.

The source said that the current president of Miss Univers Raul Rocha announced publicly that Miss Univers 2024 would be audited by Deloitte, but decided to let the company leave a month before the competition in Mexico – opting for a local accountant instead.

“Why not Thailand?”

Miss Thailand 2023 Anntonia Porsild won the first runner during the competition, losing the crown of Miss Universe 2023 in Miss Nicaragua Sheynnis Palacios.

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“I judged Thailand stronger because I did not like that Anne was trying to push Paula to tell us in a way,” said White. “And no one knew it except me; the other judges had no idea that it was going on.”

White said Porsild won the first finalist and square. “She completely put it above the board. She obtained this on her own will,” added White.

The representatives of Palacios and Prosilds did not respond to a request for comments from Business Insider.

Several sources working in Miss Universe and were present in the 2023 competition told Bi that Jakrajutip was not satisfied with the results despite Thailand making the top five.

A source, which asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, recalled that the CEO said: “Why not Thailand?” A few moments after the winner’s announcement.

At that time, Shugart had already resigned. White said she advised Shugart to make a public speech during the competition.

“I said:” What you have been asked to make compromises, and things that happen behind the scenes, it’s not ok “”, remembers White saying Shugart.

When Shugart delivered her speech of surprise resignation at night before the finalists’ announcement, she told the crowd of competition fans: “There is a critical difference between declaring the words” transformational leadership “and being a real transformational leader.

“This can and it must be empathetic beyond personal interest,” said Shugart. “He can and he must be determined to strengthen confidence by inspiration and teamwork, not insecurity and chaos.”

“Above all, it must be honesty, respect, integrity and life by your word,” she added. “We can’t just talk about the conversation. We have to walk.”

An organization plagued by scandal

In January 2023, four months after Jakrajutip acquired the Miss Universe brand, she delivered an exciting speech during the Miss Universe final in New Orleans, promising to inaugurate a new era.

“From now on, he will be led by women, belonging to a trans woman, for all women in the world,” said Jakrajutip.

The same year, married women and mothers traveled the Miss Universe scene for the first time in its history. In 2024, all women over the age of 18 were allowed to compete. Many welcomed the organization as a champion of diversity.

Months later, in a video of October 2023 obtained by BI, Jakrajutip told its staff that various competition competitors “can compete, but they cannot win,” call it a “communication strategy”.

In a statement published later on her Facebook page, Jakrajutip said that she was discussing a potential reality TV show rather than competition.

In October 2024, Jakrajutatip shocked fans of the competition when she went to Instagram Live and began to judge the photos of the competitors of Miss Universe, laughing and seeming to grimace on some of the photos of women.

The following month, she made the headlines again after praising the blond hair and blue eyes of the winner of Miss Universe 2024, Victoria Kjaer Theilvig. When a journalist questioned Jakrajutatip on the evolution of the Miss Universe competition, the CEO said: “We have already obtained the best here.”

“We have blond and blue eyes, so we already come to the ultimate evolution,” said Jakrajutip. “We no longer need evolution here.”

White told Bi that she thought that Shugart’s resignation was the disappearance of the Miss Universe organization.

“I said to Paula:” Sometimes you have to look at something to burn to save him “,” recalls White. “But after these burns, I don’t know if there are savings.”

“Once people cannot believe that it is a fair competition or a fair organization, most people do not want to be part of it,” she added. “If people think that there is no equity and equity and it is rigged, this thing is intended to fail.”

Do you have a tip? Contact this journalist safely by email to akonstantinides@businessinsider.com.