Global Courant 2023-04-15 10:24:33
SYDNEY – The second person ever charged with breaking Australia’s foreign interference laws appeared in a local court on Saturday following his arrest a day earlier.
Alexander Csergo, 55, appeared via video link before a local court in Parramatta, a Sydney suburb, and lawyers asked for the case to be postponed until Monday, which Reuters witnesses said the judge granted.
Court documents reviewed by Reuters on Saturday list an allegation of reckless foreign interference against Csergo, with the crime occurring between February 2021 and April 2023 in the Australian state of New South Wales and Shanghai.
That makes him the second person to be charged under the law, which criminalizes activities that help a foreign power disrupt Australia’s sovereignty or national interest, since the law was passed in 2018.
Csergo was alleged to have intentionally engaged in conduct on behalf of or in conjunction with individuals acting on behalf of a principal, and was “reckless as to whether the conduct would support intelligence activities of a foreign principal, and some of the conduct was concealed.” or involved deceit,” the court document said.
Csergo had recently returned from China and was arrested Friday at a home in Bondi, a beachside suburb of Sydney, according to neighbors.
Without naming Csergo, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said on Friday that a man was arrested as part of a joint investigation with the intelligence community, and that the crime is related to Australian defense and national security information.
A LinkedIn profile for an “Alexander Csergo” who lived in Shanghai shows that he was a digital and data marketing consultant with advertising industry experience in China, Singapore and Australia. He had been working in China since 2011, it turned out.
In Friday’s statement, police allege the arrested man was approached abroad by a person claiming to be from a think tank.
He then met two individuals, known to him as “Ken” and “Evelyn”, who offered him money to obtain information about Australia’s defence, economic and national security arrangements and matters relating to other countries, it said.
The court document also named “Ken” and “Evelyn” as involved with Csergo.
The police claim that he prepared a number of reports for the individuals and paid for those reports.
The AFP will claim that “Ken” and “Evelyn” work for a foreign intelligence agency and are engaged in intelligence gathering, the statement said. REUTERS
