Alexander Csergo jailed for reports to China intelligence

Australian marketing executive Alexander Csergo was sentenced by a Sydney court on Thursday to three years and six months in jail after being convicted of reckless foreign interference over reports compiled for Chinese intelligence.

A court official said Csergo, 58, will be eligible for parole from next month. He was arrested in Sydney in 2023 shortly after returning from Shanghai and was found guilty by the court in March.

Prosecutors accused Csergo of accepting cash from Chinese intelligence agents to write reports on topics including Australia's AUKUS nuclear submarine partnership with the United States and Britain, and critical minerals.

The court heard that Csergo met two suspected Chinese agents, known to him as Ken and Evelyn, in Shanghai after they contacted him on LinkedIn. It also heard that he exchanged thousands of WeChat messages with them between 2021 and 2023 and accepted cash in envelopes.

Australia's spy chief Mike Burgess said foreign interference was “an assault on Australian sovereignty”. He said the spies wanted Csergo to target people in Australia's intelligence community, Prime Minister's Office, defence sector, judiciary and think tanks.

Csergo had argued that much of the information in the reports was publicly available.

He is only the second person convicted under Australia's 2018 foreign interference laws and the first person sentenced for reckless foreign interference.