Australian man who worked in China found guilty of foreign interference
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Australian police arrested marketing executive Alexander Csergo in Sydney in 2023, shortly after he returned from living in Shanghai.
PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO
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SYDNEY – An Australian man who worked in China was found guilty of reckless foreign interference by a Sydney court on March 13, the first conviction for the offence.
Marketing executive Alexander Csergo, 59, was arrested by the Australian police in Sydney in 2023, shortly after he returned from living in Shanghai.
He was accused of accepting cash from Chinese intelligence agents to write reports on topics such as Australia’s AUKUS nuclear submarine partnership with the US and Britain, as well as critical minerals.
The court heard that Csergo had met two suspected Chinese agents, known to him as Ken and Evelyn, in Shanghai after they made contact on professional networking platform LinkedIn.
He met the pair in empty cafes in Shanghai, where he suspected the venues had been cleared for their meetings.
He returned to Australia in 2023 with a “shopping list” of topics Ken wanted information collected on.
The police discovered the list three weeks after Csergo arrived in Australia to live with his family at Bondi Beach.
The court heard that Csergo exchanged thousands of WeChat messages with the pair between 2021 and 2023, and accepted cash in envelopes.
He was the first person charged with the crime of reckless foreign interference, which carries a maximum 15-year prison term.
The law, introduced in 2018, criminalises activity that helps a foreign power interfere with Australia’s sovereignty or national interest.
Csergo had argued that much of the information in the reports was publicly available.
A jury found him guilty on March 13, a court official told AFP. The case will resume on March 16 for sentencing. AFP
