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James and Hurley had already split, but soon both were facing the end of their short reigns in Burma’s fledgling IT industry.

 

On December 14, 1999, without warning MI raided James’s three offices simultaneously, along with those of Hurley, subjecting James and his then wife to days of interrogation.

 

Hurley and James disagree over the reasons behind the crackdown, the Australian claiming his former American partner had become too noisy about his satellite potential in the face of splits among the foreign IT community in Rangoon and frightening the junta.

 

According to James, his equipment was seized to be used by Ye Naing Win—the son of the then head of MI Khin Nyunt—in starting up Bagan Cybertech.

 

In completing the purge, the Burmese government requested Hurley to pass ownership of what was known as the “dot mm” top-level domain to Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications, Burma’s very own part of the internet the Australian had previously registered with administrators in the US.

 

Eagle Group was finished, along with all other foreign internet ventures. Meanwhile Blanche was wondering what had happened to his clients in Burma, claiming never to have heard from James and Hurley again, losing a lot of money in the process.

 

Shortly afterwards, in the middle of 2000, James and Hurley left Burma, with many other foreign IT workers also choosing to escape the country, Ye Naing Win took control of the country’s internet future. Exactly a year later, Bagan Cybertech was born.