Payam Javan: John Harold Rogers, a former senior adviser in the Federal Reserve’s International Finance Division, has been arrested on charges of transmitting sensitive U.S. economic data to Chinese intelligence officials. An indictment unsealed Friday reveals that Rogers, who worked at the Fed from 2010 to 2021, allegedly accessed confidential information related to China’s economic policies, including tariff details and internal discussions. Prosecutors claim he passed this intelligence to individuals posing as graduate students, who were in fact linked to China’s security agencies. Additionally, Rogers reportedly earned approximately $450,000 as a part-time professor at Fudan University in China, where he allegedly used his academic role to facilitate meetings with his co-conspirators.

The indictment asserts that Rogers began leaking sensitive data as early as 2018, using personal emails and encrypted messaging apps to communicate with his Chinese contacts. He is also accused of providing false statements to Federal Reserve investigators in 2020 to conceal his activities. The Justice Department has warned that such disclosures could enable China to manipulate U.S. markets, posing a significant national security threat. Rogers now faces charges of conspiracy to commit economic espionage and making false statements, with a detention hearing set for next Tuesday. In response, the Chinese Embassy in Washington denied knowledge of the case, asserting that China “upholds the rule of law” and opposes “any smear and attack on China with so-called ‘spy risks.'”