Australian man who lived in China arrested for foreign interference

By Lewis Jackson and Kirsty Needham

SYDNEY (Reuters) – An Australian man who had recently returned from China was arrested in Sydney on Friday and charged with a foreign interference offence, police, court officials and neighbours of the man said.

Alexander Csergo, 55, will appear before Parramatta local court on Saturday to face a charge of reckless foreign interference, a New South Wales courts spokeswoman told Reuters. The court listing shows it is a criminal case.

A police statement said the arrest was part of a joint investigation with the intelligence services, and the offence related to Australian defence and national security information.

The man, who the police statement did not name, operates a business overseas and had recently returned to Australia.

Csergo was arrested at a residential address in the Sydney beachside suburb of Bondi, a woman who lived at the same address told Reuters.

One neighbour who spoke on condition of anonymity said a man named Alex who had lived in Shanghai for many years had recently returned and was staying at the address and was arrested on Friday.

Another said this was the second time police had visited the address in the past several weeks.

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, 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.

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

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

Csergo is the second person charged with an offence since Australia introduced foreign interference laws in 2018.

(Reporting by Lewis Jackson and Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Editing by Alex Richardson)