this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2026
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Australian businessman found guilty of working for suspected Chinese spies (www.bbc.com)
submitted 9 hours ago by Hotznplotzn@lemmy.sdf.org to c/australia@aussie.zone
1 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

[...]

Alexander Csergo, 59, faces up to 15 years in prison after being convicted in a Sydney court on Friday.

Authorities said two individuals known only as "Ken" and "Evelyn" offered to pay him for national security information while he was working in Shanghai.

[...]

The New South Wales District Court heard that Csergo, who ran a business in Shanghai, was first approached by a woman in 2021 who said she was working for a thinktank, and arranged for him to meet two representatives.

She said her clients were people who had businesses in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Csergo later met the pair, known as Ken and Evelyn, to hand over the reports in return for envelopes containing thousands of dollars of cash. The meetings took place in cafes and restaurants that were often completely empty, prosecutors said.

[...]

Despite the information provided being worthless, prosecutors argued Csergo believed Ken and Evelyn were working for China's Ministry of State Security and he was reckless as to whether it could support China's intelligence activities.

[...]

Csergo is only the second Australian to have been charged and convicted under anti-spying laws that were put in place in 2018.

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[–] tombruzzo@aussie.zone 2 points 3 hours ago

I've said before my price is a BYD Sealion 7 if Xi is listening.

And sounds like this guy is bad at opsec. Don't do handover in empty cafes, do it in places that are public but busy. And you could probably just set up a consultancy or a foundation and give this shit away with a much more legal veneer.