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A Bondi executive told police he was ensnared by the “tentacles” of China’s spy agency but only fed lies and open-source information to his recruiters during cafe meetings in China’s busiest city, court documents show.
Alex Csergo, 55, was arrested in April and became the first Australian charged with reckless foreign interference a month after returning from his life in China working on advertising algorithms for a telco giant. He is being held in Parklea Correctional Centre on remand, waiting to fight the charges.
Cathy Csergo and her son Alex Csergo in China in 2019. Alex was arrested and accused of foreign interference on behalf of Chinese spy agencies.
Spy agency ASIO and the Australian Federal Police raided his mother’s Bondi home in late March, and he told officers about being approached by suspected Chinese spies seeking information about Australia. He was arrested on April 14.
In documents submitted for his failed bail attempt in April, Csergo told police he was contacted on LinkedIn in early 2021, while he was working in China, by an unknown man working with a think tank that had no online footprint. The man introduced Csergo to a woman he knew as “Evelyn” who, in turn, introduced him to her boss “Ken”.
As the trio communicated on WeChat, Csergo became increasingly concerned that China’s Ministry of State Security had targeted him for intelligence gathering.
Ken allegedly tasked Csergo with distilling information on lithium mining, AUKUS, the Quad Alliance and other topics into reports.
Cathy Csergo, 85, was shocked when ASIO raided her home.Credit: Kate Geraghty
The Australian said he accessed more than 90 open-source documents produced by various domestic and international government agencies and corporate sector entities to fulfil the brief.
One 36-page report, allegedly found on Csergo’s laptop, is titled “China Steel Report – Strictly Confidential – November 2022” and referenced an interview with an unnamed former Australian prime minister, the AFP court document says.
Csergo, police allege, would slip from the heaving Shanghai crowds into cafes or restaurants that were unusually calm and empty in a city of 26 million to meet Ken and Evelyn and deliver the reports.
He is expected to fight the charges saying he was co-operating out of fear and was in “survival mode” until he could leave China in January.
His mother, Cathy Csergo, was overjoyed when her son returned home at the start of this year.
“But it didn’t last, my happiness,” she told this masthead.
“In two-and-a-half weeks, ASIO came to our place, half past seven in the morning. And I got a shock. Alex, he came down, and he said, ‘What’s going on?’”
Australia’s spies spent hours picking through the Csergo home, stuffed with travel trinkets, Cathy’s handwritten notes, and Greek church icons, on March 23.
The officers left with mobile phones and laptops and, tucked inside a magazine, a “shopping list” that allegedly instructed Csergo to collect information on Australia’s policy and strategy for China.
A report found on the laptop of Alex Csergo about the Chinese Communist Party which referenced an interview with a former prime minister.
The Herald has chosen not to divulge the complete contents of the list, but it allegedly asked Csergo to make contacts within the highest levels of Australia’s government and security apparatus.
ASIO transferred the investigation to the Australian Federal Police, the court documents state, who returned to the Bondi home the following day.
Both the AFP court document and Csergo’s lawyers portray the Bondi executive as consumed by anxiety and paranoia while in China.
“Due to [Csergo’s] enhanced state of paranoia he would always agree to provide the reports and confirm to Ken that he had access to various individuals to obtain important information,” the AFP court document reads.
Cathy Csergo, at her home in Bondi, says her son Alex would not have returned home if he was a spy. She speaks to him daily on the phone while he remains on remand.Credit: Kate Geraghty
Csergo told police he kept copies of his reports, his WeChat and LinkedIn messages and copies of the reports he gave to the handlers on his laptop because “he wanted proof he was not going crazy”, the court documents say.
“We need to be careful – especially this thing is being followed and they know there is a source,” Csergo allegedly told his handlers over WeChat.
“It will come back to you, then me, then my source … don’t want to find ourselves being questioned by any governments.”
In exchange for the reports, the AFP alleges, Csergo was given envelopes containing about $4300 worth of Chinese currency which he spent.
An extract from the “shopping list” written by a Chinese agent known as Ken and allegedly secreted into Australia by Csergo in the pages of a magazine, according to the AFP.
Bernard Collaery, Csergo’s lawyer and former ACT attorney-general, has told the courts Csergo only provided open-source information.
Csergo allegedly told police he fed his handlers exaggerated or fabricated information to see if it would leak.
“His fictitious sources became even more extreme, for instance, he claimed that he interviewed the Australian prime minister,” the court documents read.
“He was waiting for someone to claim that he was fabricating the sources or otherwise stop requesting these reports.”
Csergo was arrested by the AFP on April 14.
An American company advised him, according to the court documents, they could “extract him from China within 24 hours”.
Ken asked Csergo if he had been in contact with other intelligence agencies, Csergo told police, and his paranoia increased further.
Cathy Csergo said her son was “frightened for his life” and he did not give his handlers the information they wanted.
He told police he expected to be contacted by the Australian government while in China or upon his return and kept the shopping list to prove he had been groomed.
The AFP alleges Csergo did not report his contact with Ken and Evelyn to ASIO before his home was searched. They also acknowledge he has not undertaken any work to fulfil the shopping list for Ken.
They also alleged Csergo has repeatedly been in contact with Ken via WeChat since returning to Australia and discussed Ken visiting Australia – and getting information out.
Csergo has made multiple attempts to be released on bail – to date he has not been able to meet his lawyers face to face, this masthead understands.
Magistrate Michael Barko denied bail in April, saying there was a strong prosecution case and Csergo was a flight risk due to his extremely strong ties to China. He had allegedly Googled Greek and Romanian passports after the raids on his home, but before he was arrested.
Collaery said the case was weak, so far, though not all the information has been served.
Cathy Csergo, in tears and clutching Alex’s Waverley College yearbook, said she knew her son was innocent.
“My son, he’s not a criminal and he’s not a spy. He’s an honest man and he’s a family man,” she said.
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