The second person ever charged with contravening Australia’s foreign interference laws appeared in a local court yesterday following his arrest a day earlier.
Alexander Csergo, 55, appeared via videoconference before a local court in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta and lawyers asked to adjourn the matter until tomorrow, which was granted by the judge.
Court documents listed a charge of reckless foreign interference against Csergo, with the offense occurring between February 2021 and this month in Australia’s New South Wales state and Shanghai.
Photo: AFP
That makes him the second person charged under the law, which criminalizes activity that helps a foreign power interfere with Australia’s sovereignty or national interest, since it was passed in 2018.
Csergo allegedly 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 recently returned from China and was arrested on Friday at a residence in the Sydney suburb of Bondi, neighbors said.
Without naming Csergo, the Australian Federal Police on Friday said a man was arrested as part of a joint investigation with the country’s intelligence services, and the offense related to Australian defense and national security information.
A LinkedIn profile for an Alexander Csergo who lived in Shanghai showed that 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 said the arrested man was contacted while overseas by an individual claiming to be from a think tank.
The man then met two individuals, known to him as “Ken” and “Evelyn,” who offered him money to obtain information about Australian defense, economic and national security arrangements, as well as matters relating to other countries, police said.
The court document also named “Ken” and “Evelyn” as engaging with Csergo.
Police said he compiled a number of reports for the individuals and received payment for those reports.
Police said “Ken” and “Evelyn” worked for a foreign intelligence service and are undertaking intelligence collection activities.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
China has approved the creation of a national nature reserve at the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines, the government said yesterday, as Beijing moves to reinforce its territorial claims in the contested region. A notice posted online by the Chinese State Council said that details about the area and size of the project would be released separately by the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration. “The building of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve is an important guarantee for maintaining the diversity, stability and sustainability of the natural ecosystem of Huangyan Island,” the notice said. Scarborough
RSS