A former senior Federal Reserve advisor was arrested on Friday for allegedly selling sensitive economic information to the Chinese government.
John Harold Rogers, 63, of Vienna, Virginia was indicted by a grand jury for allegedly stealing Federal Reserve trade secrets and selling them to Chinese intelligence officials. Rogers reportedly sold the sensitive information for at least $450,000 by posing as a university professor in China, according to court documents. He is also accused of lying to Federal Reserve investigators and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau officials.
Rogers made his first appearance in federal court on Friday, the same day his arrest and indictment were announced by the Justice Department. He is currently being held without bail and is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday.
The data that was allegedly shared by Rogers with his co-conspirators could allow China to manipulate the U.S. market “in a manner similar to insider trading,” according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington D.C.
The information would allow the Chinese Communist Party to “gain advance knowledge of U.S. economic policy, including advance knowledge of changes to the federal funds rate, [which] could provide China with an advantage when selling or buying U.S. bonds or securities,” prosecutors said. The release further noted that China holds about $816 billion of U.S. government debt.
Rogers’ alleged co-conspirators are members of China’s intelligence and security apparatus, both of whom posed as graduate students at a Chinese university, prosecutors said. The conspirators allegedly provided Rogers with several gifts, including a paid beach vacation. They also paid for his airfare, meals and lodging during his trips to China, where he worked as a part-time professor at Fudan University in Shanghai after retiring from the Fed. In 2023, he was paid $450,000 for his work at the university.
