Ex-Fed advisor gets over three years in prison for lying about China ties
Rep. Hal Rogers (left), a Republican from Kentucky and chairman of the House Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, and Rep. John Carter, a Texas Republican, during a hearing on Thursday, June 5, 2025 in Washington DC, USA.
Eric Lee | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A former senior adviser to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for lying to federal investigators about the sharing of restricted central bank information with Chinese intelligence officials. According to the Department of Justice.
John Harold Rogers, 64, was convicted in February of making false statements to investigators by refusing to share limited information about monetary policy, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Wednesday. The same jury also acquitted him of the more serious charge of conspiracy to commit economic espionage.
“John Rogers spent years secretly passing sensitive Federal Reserve information to Chinese spies, then looked investigators in the eye and lied about it. And when that wasn’t enough, he lied under oath again at trial,” Pirro said.
The sentence comes at a time when the Trump administration is intensifying its sanctions. Pursuit of economic espionage allegations by Beijing.
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich also ordered Rogers sentenced to an additional 12 months of probation. Defense lawyers had requested that he not seek a prison sentence longer than the approximately 18 months he spent in custody and that this period be reflected in his sentence.
Rogers, a U.S. citizen with a doctorate in economics, worked as a senior advisor in the international finance division of the Federal Reserve Board from 2010 to 2021, providing access to non-public materials about monetary policy and Federal Open Market Committee deliberations.
Prosecutors argued that sharing advanced information about the Fed’s interest rate decisions could allow Beijing to reap “tremendous profits” from its nearly $1.5 trillion trade in U.S. Treasurys, according to the Justice Department.
It is alleged that Rogers began a secret relationship with Chinese intelligence agent Hummin Lee, whom he met at a conference in China, in 2017 and passed on Fed information in meetings held in Chinese hotel rooms under the guise of giving academic lectures.
The Justice Department statement said he printed the restricted documents before traveling to China, removed the classification marks, emailed the materials to his personal account, and forwarded sensitive information to a professor at Fudan University. In return, he received a university professorship and financial aid, prosecutors said.
When asked directly in a February 2020 inspector general interview whether he had shared restricted Fed information outside the board, Rogers said “never,” according to the Justice Department.
China’s foreign ministry did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
