Former Federal Reserve official accused of economic espionage, allegedly sharing sensitive market data
A former senior adviser to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors has been arrested on charges of conspiring to steal sensitive US financial data for China.
John Harold Rogers, 63, was taken into custody on Friday and charged with economic espionage and making false statements. According to the US Attorney’s Office in Washington, Rogers allegedly shared proprietary Federal Reserve data with Chinese operatives posing as graduate students.
“The Chinese Communist Party has expanded its economic espionage campaign to target US government financial policies and trade secrets in an effort to undermine the US and become the sole superpower,” said FBI assistant director in charge David Sundberg.
Federal prosecutors claim Rogers, who worked at the Fed from 2010 to 2021, engaged in the conspiracy for over a decade, from May 2013 until his arrest. An indictment showed he attempted to obtain and share confidential economic briefings, Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) materials, and proprietary financial data, potentially providing China with government trade secrets.
In 2023, Rogers received approximately $450,000 as a part-time professor at a Chinese university, according to the indictment. That August, he allegedly sought access to two spreadsheets containing Fed proprietary data.
Rogers’ intel, prosecutors said, could have given China an advantage in financial markets. The FOMC’s monetary policy decisions, including interest rate adjustments, are closely watched by global investors, with their announcements influencing bond and equity markets, particularly the $28 trillion US Treasuries market.
As of November 2024, China held $768.6 billion in US Treasury securities, making it the second-largest foreign holder after Japan, according to the US Treasury Department.
The case against Rogers intensified in February 2020 when the Fed’s inspector general’s office questioned him. Prosecutors say he lied about his interactions with Chinese contacts and his attempts to access sensitive information.
Authorities allege that two of his conspirators, who posed as graduate students at Shandong University of Finance and Economics, were affiliated with Chinese intelligence and security agencies.
Rogers appeared in federal court in Washington on Friday and remains in custody ahead of a detention hearing scheduled for Tuesday. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison for economic espionage.
The Federal Reserve has declined to comment on the matter.
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