Australian back from China appears in court on foreign interference charge

By Lewis Jackson and Kirsty Needham

SYDNEY (Reuters) – The second person ever charged with violating Australia’s foreign interference laws appeared in a local court on Saturday following his arrest a day earlier.

Alexander Csergo, 55, appeared via video link before a local court in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta and lawyers asked to adjourn the matter until Monday, which was granted by the judge, according to Reuters witnesses.

Court documents reviewed by Reuters on Saturday listed a charge of reckless foreign interference against Csergo, with the offence occurring between February 2021 and April 2023 in the Australian state of New South Wales and Shanghai.

That makes him the second person charged under the law, which criminalises activity that helps a foreign power interfere with Australia’s sovereignty or national interest, since it was passed in 2018.

Csergo is alleged to have intentionally engaged in conduct on behalf of or in collaboration with persons acting on behalf of a principal, and was “reckless as to whether the conduct would support intelligence activities of a foreign principal, and a part of the conduct was covert or involved deception”, the court document said.

Csergo had recently returned from China and was arrested on Friday at a residence in the Sydney beachside suburb of Bondi, according to neighbours.

Without naming Csergo, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said on Friday a man was arrested as part of a joint investigation with the intelligence services, and the offence related to Australian defence and national security information.

A LinkedIn profile for an Alexander Csergo who lived in Shanghai shows he was a digital and data marketing consultant with experience in the advertising industry in China, Singapore and Australia. He had worked in China since 2011, it showed.

In the statement on Friday, police allege the arrested man was contacted while overseas by an individual claiming to be from a think-tank. He then met two individuals, known to him as “Ken” and “Evelyn”, who offered him money to obtain information about Australian defence, economic and national security arrangements, plus matters relating to other countries, it said.

The court document also named “Ken” and “Evelyn” as engaging with Csergo.

Police allege he compiled a number of reports for the individuals and received payment for those reports.

The AFP will allege “Ken” and “Evelyn” work for a foreign intelligence service and are undertaking intelligence collection activities, the statement said.

(Reporting by Lewis Jackson and Kirsty Needham; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)