Alexander Csergo arrives at the Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney, Australia on Feb. 18, 2026. Alexander Csergo, 56, allegedly provided information to two Chinese spies posing as think-tank workers. AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi
A New South Wales man who sold fabricated reports to two people he believed were working for Beijing’s Ministry of State Security has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years’ jail, with a non-parole period of one year and 10 months.
Alexander Csergo, 58, was arrested in 2023 and faced court earlier this year, and has been convicted of reckless foreign interference.
He had pleaded not guilty to providing reports, between November 2021 and March 2023, to two contacts known to him as “Ken” and “Evelyn” in exchange for cash, claiming he feared for his safety.
Csergo, owner of Shanghai-based IT consulting firm Conversys, compiled the reports from open-source material but padded them with fabricated quotes he falsely attributed to interviews, including purported remarks from former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on AUKUS, the Quad and Australian defence policy.
Other reports covered lithium and iron ore, and changes in the German government. The material was handed over in person at restaurants and cafes, on printed pages or USB drives, never by email.
The prosecution argued the relationship between Csergo and the two alleged spies were more valuable than his reports. At the time, he was also working with major U.S. tech firm Oracle.
The AFP seized more than 3,200 WeChat messages between Csergo and his alleged handlers during a March 2023 search warrant.
AFP Assistant Commissioner Sandra Booth said foreign powers often rely on “covert, deceptive or coercive activities to influence political processes harm national security or threaten communities.”
ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess said Csergo had been directed to target individuals connected to Australia’s intelligence community, the Prime Minister’s Office, the defence sector, the judiciary and think tanks, describing foreign interference as “an assault on Australian sovereignty.”
The conviction is only the second in Australia for a foreign interference offence, and the first specifically for reckless foreign interference, since Parliament passed the National Security Legislation Amendment (Espionage and Foreign Interference) Act in 2018.
The first conviction cametheir in the case of Melbourne businessman Di Sanh “Sunny” Duong, found guilty in December 2023 of preparing for or planning foreign interference on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP); he was sentenced to two years and nine months in 2024.
A second reckless foreign interference case followed in August 2025, when a Chinese national was arrested in Canberra on the same charge after allegedly spying on a banned Buddhist group for the CCP’s Public Security Bureau since 2022.
Burgess has warned such cases represent only a fraction of the activity ASIO is tracking, telling Parliament in his June Annual Threat Assessment that at least five foreign regimes were targeting Australians with coercive tactics.
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