Inside Man: How Chinese spies used lies, love and betrayal to target the Federal Reserve

[Timber Rattler]

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/30/john-rogers-fed-china-espionage-case.html

John Harold Rogers was walking Prada, his tiny spaniel, past a school bus stop in his suburban Washington neighborhood when FBI agents surrounded him. They handcuffed the former senior Federal Reserve official and took him into custody to face charges of spying for China.

An agent took Prada’s leash, and investigators from multiple federal agencies began an intensive search of Rogers’ house.

The now 65-year-old economist was arrested in January 2025, days before he was set to travel to China with his wife, a Chinese national, and their 6-year-old daughter. Investigators believed that Rogers passed information about the Fed to a Chinese government spy, who, over more than a decade, helped him with his career, his finances and his marriage to a woman 24 years his junior.

Rogers’ descent from senior Fed official to espionage suspect appears to have been driven by his desire for female companionship. This desire was exploited by a Chinese government agent, who became increasingly entwined in Rogers’ professional and personal life. Rogers’ indiscretion was later exploited by online blackmail scammers, ultimately leading to his downfall.

(snip)


On Instagram, Rogers exchanged messages with accounts featuring beautiful women, eventually exchanging nude photos of himself taken with his Fed-issued phone, sometimes in the gym at Fed headquarters in Washington.

Soon, the people behind the accounts began demanding money. They told Rogers they knew where he worked, what kind of car he drove. They threatened to send Rogers’ nudes to the vice chair of the Fed, Richard Clarida. They threatened to kidnap Rogers’ then-18-month-old daughter. Rogers would testify that all of this had him “very scared and wanting to protect my family.”

This was the breaking point. In 2020, on Super Bowl Sunday, Rogers told higher-ups what had been going on. They referred Rogers to the Fed’s Office of Inspector General.

Rogers was already on the Inspector General’s radar, and the Fed’s cybersecurity team had concerns about Rogers’ travel to China and his relationship with Lee.

(snip)

Soon after he left the Fed, Rogers began teaching classes at Fudan University — the same university he had visited when he first met Lee in 2013. He believed the case against him had ended.

He was wrong. The Fed had taken the case to the FBI, and more than three years later its agents surrounded Rogers and his dog at the school bus stop.

(snip)

On Feb. 3, the jury found Rogers guilty on the charge of making false statements but acquitted him on the charge of conspiracy to commit economic espionage.

On July 15, he was sentenced to 38 months in federal prison.

EXCERPT

[DefiantMassRINO]

I heard an taped audio interview with the guy on CNBC.

He didn't seem too concerned that the Chi-coms were using him to infiltrate the Federal Reserve.

His mail order Chi-com bride must be keeping his nuts happy.

[mountaineer]

Press Release
Former Adviser to Federal Reserve Board of Governors Sentenced to Federal Prison Term
Wednesday, July 15, 2026
For Immediate Release
Office of Public Affairs

Note: the release has been updated to include a quote from the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division.

John Harold Rogers, 64, a former senior adviser for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (FRB), was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 38 months in federal prison in connection with making false statements to federal investigators about sharing restricted Federal Reserve information with Chinese intelligence operatives. 

“The United States entrusted Rogers with its most sensitive economic data,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg.  “He violated that sacred trust and lied repeatedly to conceal his collaboration with individuals in China with ties to the Chinese Communist Party, exposing his own country, the United States, to counterintelligence risks.”

“John Rogers spent years secretly funneling sensitive Federal Reserve information to Chinese spies, then looked investigators in the eye and lied about it. And when that wasn’t enough, he lied again under oath at trial,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro for the District of Columbia. “Federal Reserve employees entrusted with America’s most sensitive economic information cannot sell out their country and their colleagues for personal gain and then expect to hide behind a single word.”  ...