An expat businessman who worked with two alleged Chinese spies complained to Foreign Minister Penny Wong when police and domestic intelligence agents raided his home.
IT consultant Alexander Csergo, 59, had returned to Australia in March 2023 after spending three years of COVID-19 lockdowns in Shanghai.
Three weeks after he stepped off the plane, Australian Federal Police and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation officers raided his eastern Sydney home.
They seized electronics and a shopping list of sensitive topics he had been asked to research.
Csergo was convicted by a NSW District Court jury on Friday of one count of reckless foreign interference by providing reports to two suspected spies known as Ken and Evelyn while in Shanghai.
On the day of the raid, he emailed Senator Wong and her department, saying someone had overstepped when ordering the search of his home.
"The warrant under Australian national security has been used to acquire information that is highly questionable in terms of 'Australian security' more of 'security interest' (sic)," he wrote.
"(ASIO chief) Mike Burgess, department (sic) effectively acquired counter-intelligence on China and the Chinese state using the warrant process."
He called Senator Wong highly respected, saying her legal background defined an "understanding and sensitivity" that someone had crossed a line.
In the email, Csergo denied he had handed over any sensitive information.
"Under the minister's 'think before you link' program, I could be a concern because (of) my large China based LinkedIn network," he wrote, in an apparent reference to an ASIO program.
During closing submissions at trial, crown prosecutor Jennifer Single SC told the jury the email was Csergo trying to change the narrative after his home had been raided.
The 59-year-old had been approached through LinkedIn in late 2021 by a woman claiming to work for a Chinese think tank.
Csergo was introduced to Evelyn and then Ken after being told the think tank wanted information that was not publicly available.
Instead, he compiled reports that contained open source information and opinions falsely claimed to come from expert individuals including former prime minister Kevin Rudd.
In exchange, he was given envelopes containing the equivalent of thousands of dollars in cash.
His bail was revoked on Monday and he is yet to face sentencing.
He has flagged plans to appeal.
