Adam Castillo, the former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar, left the country Sept. 16 after 97 days in detention. A US delegation met Myanmar's military-backed government in Naypyidaw the day before and secured his release, the State Department said Sept. 17.
Reuters and CNN described the visit as the most significant known US engagement with the junta since the February 2021 coup.
Castillo, 40, is a former Marine officer who founded the Yangon security firm AGS Myanmar. Police detained him at Yangon International Airport on June 11 as he returned from Malaysia. He was released into the custody of US officials and flown to Bangkok. State-run MRTV said he was deported "in consideration of the friendly relations between Myanmar and the United States."
The complaint came from the chamber he ran
AmCham Myanmar brought the case against its own former president. The chamber, which Castillo led from 2023 to 2025, accused him of collecting a $300,000 lobbying contract with the Washington firm Mercury LLC in the association's name and keeping the money out of its accounts. Its May annual report said the board never approved the agreement, received no funds and got no services.
Myanmar authorities charged him with breach of trust. Whether he was tried, or whether the charge was dropped before deportation, hasn't been disclosed.
The Associated Press reported documents that cut against the chamber's account. A Nov. 1, 2024, board resolution on AmCham letterhead approved the lobbying initiative, named Misfit Technologies as its sponsor and authorized the Mercury engagement. AmCham's executive director called the resolution fabricated. A Misfit employee told the AP the company's chief executive, then a board member and now a co-defendant, signed it.
Minutes of a May 30, 2025, general meeting show members voted 42-8 to write the US-Burma Economic Forum into the chamber's constitution. Mercury's fees came from Misfit's US office and were declared under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, the AP found.
AmCham Myanmar said in a Sept. 16 statement that it had "obtained independent legal advice" and referred the matter to authorities.
A memoir, a dissident and the timing of the arrest
Castillo was returning from promoting a book published in March when he was detained. The book argued US sanctions hurt businesses and ordinary people rather than the government, criticized the military and described an episode in which he helped a well-known dissident leave the country.
Casey Barnett, who led the American chamber in Cambodia while Castillo held the Myanmar post, told the AP the regime would likely have known the book's contents by the time Castillo landed. Myanmar jailed a rapper for 20 years in 2023 for criticizing the government over power cuts.
Castillo had also pitched senior officials in Washington on trading sanctions relief for US access to Myanmar's rare earth minerals, the AP reported. The Trump administration ended temporary protected status for Myanmar nationals in 2025 and cited the junta's elections as evidence of improvement.
Coup leader Min Aung Hlaing installed himself as president in 2026 after a vote widely described as a sham. Washington doesn't recognize his government.
What the State Department did and didn't say
The department confirmed the delegation's Sept. 15 meetings and declined to name the officials or their counterparts. Washington had avoided sending senior officials to Myanmar or holding talks with its government since the coup, Reuters reported.
Global Reach, the Washington nonprofit Castillo's family hired, credited the administration. "Members of the Trump Administration have been working quietly behind the scenes to secure Adam's release," said its chief executive, Mickey Bergman. Castillo's sister, Amanda Castillo, thanked President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
A second person arrested in the case, the chamber's former executive director Danny Kyaw, an Australian national, hadn't been confirmed released as of Sept. 17. The Australian Embassy declined immediate comment.
What the case shows about Americans doing business in Myanmar
Castillo's detention followed a route AER has covered in Thailand, Jordan and China: a dispute involving an American abroad becomes a criminal case, and diplomacy rather than a courtroom decides the outcome.
Two Americans were arrested in Thailand's nominee-company crackdown in August. Jordanian-American journalist Ali Younes faced sedition charges over a repost. An American seismologist held in China for 600 days went to trial on espionage charges in July.
The Myanmar case is distinct in one respect. The complaint that put a US citizen in custody came from the US business community's own chamber. As of Sept. 18, the chamber, the junta and the State Department had each given a different account of why he was held, and none had said what else the delegation discussed in Naypyidaw.
