Myanmar deports US businessman Adam Castillo after three months in jail

Myanmar's military-backed government has deported Adam Castillo, a US businessman and former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar, after three months in jail on charges that his supporters say were trumped up. State-run MRTV television reported on Wednesday that he was flown out of the capital, Naypyitaw, earlier in the day.

MRTV said Castillo was deported "in consideration of the friendly relations between Myanmar and the United States". It said he had been charged with breach of trust over allegations that he violated AmCham Myanmar regulations, but did not say if he was ever brought to trial or whether the charges had been dropped.

Global Reach, a Washington-based non-profit engaged by Castillo's family to help in the case, confirmed his release. "We are thrilled to see Adam coming home and are grateful for the collaboration and efforts from the Trump Administration," Global Reach chief executive Mickey Bergman said. Castillo, 40, was released into the custody of US officials in Myanmar and then flown to Bangkok, Thailand, from where he will soon return to the US.

"I can't wait to welcome my brother home, but I know it will be bittersweet for him," his sister Amanda Castillo said in a statement. "He had such great hopes for enhanced US/Myanmar relations, and he holds the deepest respect for the Burmese people, among whom he lived for many years."

A former US Marine and founder and owner of the security risk management firm AGS Myanmar, Castillo was detained at Yangon International Airport on June 11 after returning from Malaysia. His arrest came after AmCham Myanmar accused him of financial impropriety, which he denies. At the time, Myanmar authorities said only that he had been arrested because "there was a crime and a lawsuit", without giving further details.

AmCham Myanmar said on its website on Wednesday that it had "obtained independent legal advice and, consistent with its fiduciary duties and its obligations under its constitution, referred the matter to the appropriate authorities". It was not clear whether the chamber's former executive director, an Australian national who was also arrested in the case, had been released.

The allegations against Castillo centre on his lobbying effort to generate interest in doing business with Myanmar. He had secured meetings at senior levels in Washington to pitch a plan under which the US would get access to Myanmar's rare earth minerals in exchange for sanctions relief. At the same time, he was running one of Myanmar's biggest security companies and in March published a book about his experiences.

The book criticised US sanctions on Myanmar, saying they hurt businesses and people but not the military-backed government. It was also critical of the military, known as the Tatmadaw, as well as AmCham leadership, and described an episode in which Castillo said he helped a well-known dissident escape the country.

Casey Barnett, who was president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia when Castillo led the chamber in Myanmar, said Castillo was arrested after returning from promoting the book in Malaysia, by which time its contents had likely become known to the authorities. Barnett noted that Myanmar jailed a rapper for 20 years in 2023 for criticising the military government over electricity blackouts. "The regime likely would be very aware, if not perhaps made aware, of the statements that Adam made in the book, including calling the Tatmadaw regime a great evil," Barnett, now president of the CamEd Business School in Phnom Penh, told The Associated Press. "These kinds of statements would be intolerable for a country that puts a rapper in prison for life for criticizing electricity shortages."

AmCham's complaint focuses on Castillo's creation of the US-Burma Economic Forum as a lobbying organisation for the chamber while he was president from 2023 to 2025, and on a 2024 contract he signed with Washington public relations firm Mercury LLC to arrange meetings and events. The contract was worth USD 300,000. In its complaint, AmCham Myanmar alleged that Castillo "illegally collected" the money using the association's name and that he "did not deposit these funds into the association's bank accounts".

In its annual report in May, the chamber said its board had never approved the agreement, that AmCham Myanmar received no funds, made no payments and received no services, and that the matter was not disclosed to statutory auditors. But other AmCham documents appear to contradict that account.

A November 1, 2024 resolution on AmCham Myanmar letterhead, signed by board members including Castillo, said the chamber had approved the Burma Lobby initiative and granted "full authority to act on behalf of AmCham Myanmar in connection with the initiative". It also said sponsorship would be provided by Misfit Technologies and approved the engagement of Mercury Public Affairs for the lobbying initiative. The resolution, obtained by AP from Castillo's supporters, was described by AmCham executive director Myat Phyu The as a "fabricated document".

An employee of Misfit Technologies, whose chief executive Munimul Islam was a board member at the time and is now named in AmCham's complaint as one of Castillo's co-defendants, confirmed that Islam had signed the document. The employee spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons. Other board members did not respond to emails seeking comment.

Other documents still on AmCham's website also appear to show that the board knew of the initiative and approved it. Minutes of the chamber's general meeting on May 30, 2025 said Castillo proposed including the US-Burma Economic Forum in the chamber's constitution, and that the measure passed by 42 votes to eight.

The Misfit employee said the roughly USD 300,000 in fees to Mercury were paid directly by Misfit Technologies' US office because sanctions and Burmese regulations would have made it nearly impossible to make the payments from Myanmar. Those payments were declared by Mercury to US authorities under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, with the reports available online. While AmCham said it received no services, AP said it confirmed that Mercury organised and attended several meetings in Washington with Castillo and others.

"My brother is all about law and order, he was a Marine Corps officer for goodness sake," Amanda Castillo said. "The suggestion he did anything inappropriate is laughable - so many people can vouch for that." Castillo has now been sent out of Myanmar after months in custody, while questions remain over the case against him and the wider dispute over the chamber's lobbying initiative.