Alexander Csergo says his Chinese intelligence handlers would nominate where to meet.
When he would arrive, Ken and Evelyn – he only ever knew them by a single Anglicised name – would already be waiting and the restaurant otherwise empty of people: cleared, he believed, specifically for their meeting.
Csergo would hand over a report - filled, he says, with open-source, anodyne information and occasionally, “fabricated material”, including, on one occasion, a falsified interview with a prime minister. In exchange, a police statement states, he would be given an envelope containing cash.
Csergo would always leave the meetings first. Ken and Evelyn would remain after he departed.
In an interview with police in Australia, Csergo said he was “in survival mode”, trying to stay free until he could get out of China.
Csergo, 55, a Sydney businessman, has been charged with one count of reckless foreign interference, with police alleging he provided reports to his handlers whom he knew were part of China’s vast state intelligence apparatus.
But, as Csergo told police in an interview detailed in the police statement of facts tendered to a New South Wales court, he says he felt essentially trapped in China – most acutely during the height of Shanghai’s highly restrictive Covid lockdowns – and that he needed to placate his handlers or risk being detained in the country.
The police statement of facts says “during this time he experienced high levels of anxiety and was in ‘survival mode’... an enhanced state of paranoia”.
“He understood the MSS would not let someone who they perceive to be a risk or threat leave China.”
Csergo told police he believed his handlers worked for China’s secretive and powerful Ministry of State Security (MSS). Their modus operandi matched that of operatives of the MSS’s Shanghai State Security Bureau.
“He believed Ken and Evelyn were tasked to keep tabs on him and ascertain his sentiment towards the Chinese government. He thought Ken and Evelyn were grooming him to see whether he could be used for anything in the future,” the police document says.
Csergo had worked in China since 2002 and owned a digital solutions company, Conversys, which in late 2019, had begun work on a project with one of China’s largest state-owned telecommunications companies.
The police document says that in early 2021, Csergo was approached, through LinkedIn, by a man unknown to him who claimed to work for a “risk-related geopolitical thinktank”. The man introduced him to a colleague, Evelyn, who introduced him to her boss, Ken. Csergo immediately suspected he was being surveilled, and likely groomed, by Chinese intelligence agents.
Csergo was asked to write reports on varied subjects, the police statement says, including lithium mining in Australia, the change in the German government, and Australia’s Quad and Aukus alliances. He was paid RMB20,000 (AU$4,300), in cash, for each report, which he did not bank, but spent.
Csergo told police he used only information available on open-source websites and did not make contact with anyone in Australia to write the reports. He said “he often fabricated source material”.
“He was convinced Ken worked for the MSS and attempted to create a feedback loop when providing the reports,” the police statement says. “His fictitious sources became even more extreme … he claimed that he interviewed the Australian prime minister.
“He was waiting for someone to claim that he was fabricating the sources or otherwise stop requesting these reports. This never happened.”
In his police interview, Csergo said he developed a “paranoia” he was being surveilled and kept copies of his reports as evidence of what he’d been asked to do.
When he told his handlers in February this year he needed to return to Australia to care for his elderly mother, he was given a “shopping list” of information they wanted.
Guardian Australia has seen the list. Literally titled “shopping list for reference”, the document is illuminating as to the concerns, even obsessions, of China’s intelligence service.
The list requests information about whether Australia’s new Aukus alliance is “preparing for [a] Taiwan war”, about competition between the US and China in the Pacific, and about the Five Eyes intelligence alliance.
The document also seeks to establish contacts inside the prime minister’s office, within spy agency Asio, and with Australian federal police officers and members of the judiciary. It asks for cabinet-level information on Australian foreign policy: “us/aus coordination and conflicts on china policy, approaching the cabinet or ministerial level.”
Csergo told police in Australia he never completed any of the tasks on the list “and never intended to”.
He says he kept the document – police found it in a magazine stand in his home – as “insurance” so that people would believe he’d been approached by Chinese intelligence.
“He did not tell anyone about ‘the shopping list’ when he arrived in Australia because he did not know who he could tell,” the police statement of facts says.
The AFP, in their statement of facts, alleges Csergo “undertook research … to complete tasks assigned by Ken and/or Evelyn, reckless as to whether it supported the intelligence activities of a foreign principal”.
And, the police argue, Csergo, “had no intention” to contact any Australian government agency to report his contact with his handlers, or his possession of the shopping list.
“Csergo believed Ken and Evelyn worked for the MSS and undertook intelligence collection activities on their behalf.”
But Csergo’s mother Cathy told Guardian Australia earlier this month “my son is innocent”.
“His whole life, he has worked hard, he has been honest, he has never been involved with the police.
“He’s a good man. I’m heartbroken. I go to jail and I can’t hug him.”
Csergo’s legal team has argued the police prosecution is “misconceived and overzealous”. He faces a potential 15-year prison sentence if convicted.
“Alex [Csergo] has done what every captured defence or intelligence official is trained to do,” his lawyer, Bernard Collaery, said, “cooperate as harmlessly as possible. If this trial goes ahead, a jury is going to see him as resourceful and courageous.”
Csergo has been in prison awaiting trial – held in isolation and with limited outside communication – since he was arrested in April.
His case returns to court on 11 August.
