A Marxist billionaire who calls Chinese Communist Party leaders personal friends has been funding American radical organizations tax-free.
Congress subpoenaed his American nonprofit network and gave them until last Tuesday to hand over financial records.
They refused – and now Congress wants to know what Neville Roy Singham has been hiding for thirteen months.
How Neville Roy Singham Funneled $278 Million Through Shell Companies to the People's Forum
Neville Roy Singham sold his software company ThoughtWorks for an estimated $785 million in 2017, moved to Shanghai, and started building an American nonprofit empire funded by a fortune made in capitalist America.
His network spans activist hubs, Marxist think tanks, and far-left media outlets across the United States – all registered as charities while doing Beijing's bidding.
Rep. Darin LaHood laid out how Singham moves the money: from his businesses through privately held companies, then through donor-advised funds, stripping the donor's name away three or four times before it reaches the end user.
Stripping a donor's name four times isn't bookkeeping – it's a cover operation.
Fox News traced at least $22.44 million flowing to The People's Forum, $16.76 million to Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, and $1.098 million to BreakThrough News – three tax-exempt American nonprofits using the legal system to shield Chinese Communist money.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith subpoenaed all three in July after they refused voluntary requests for financial records, and when the October 20 deadline passed, they didn't comply – they went on offense.
The People's Forum called Smith's investigation a "MAGA-led witch hunt" in an Oct. 21 statement beneath a graphic reading "We won't surrender our First Amendment rights."
BreakThrough News attorneys said threatening seven of their staff with depositions unless the outlet dropped its legal objections amounted to holding them hostage.
Both organizations then asked their supporters to donate money to fund their legal battles against Congress.
Why the People's Forum and the Singham Network Cannot Hide Behind the First Amendment
Ten press freedom organizations – including PEN America and the Freedom of the Press Foundation – lined up behind BreakThrough News, warning that questioning their journalists threatens press freedom.
Jason Smith isn't investigating what these outlets publish – he's investigating where their money comes from, and that's a distinction the press freedom crowd is deliberately blurring.
There's a massive difference between a government censoring a news outlet and a government asking a tax-exempt organization – one that enjoys special privileges under U.S. law – to prove it isn't a financial front for a foreign power hostile to the United States.
The CCP spends over $2.6 billion annually through its United Front Work Department – a global shadow network designed to fund seemingly independent organizations that actually advance Beijing's agenda in foreign countries.
The committee has identified BreakThrough News as part of the International People's Media Network, a coalition it says exists to push anti-American, pro-CCP content to Western audiences.
After October 7, 2023, the outlet pushed pro-Hamas messaging while Hamas was still sorting through the bodies.
While fighting Smith's subpoena this month, it advertised "Europe's Youth Uprising" – framing cars on fire in Paris and rioters clashing with French police as a legitimate liberation movement.
Tricontinental's executive director Vijay Prashad holds a senior fellowship at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China – a think tank with deep ties to China's Ministry of Education and Beijing's municipal government.
Prashad isn't a journalist covering China – he's a CCP-embedded academic writing for Americans who will never check his affiliations.
"Shanghai Singham has poured millions of dollars into these groups to take advantage of America's nonprofit sector and promote Chinese Communist Party propaganda," Smith said in an October statement. "What these groups are fighting to keep hidden is even more concerning."
The committee first requested records from The People's Forum in September 2025.
These three organizations stonewalled Congress for over a year while taking money from a man who lives in Shanghai and has personally appeared at CCP propaganda forums.
Smith and House China Committee Chairman John Moolenaar also asked the Treasury Department and the IRS in September to investigate the broader Singham network – and the IRS has the power to revoke their tax-exempt status entirely.
Singham himself is among the 21 named as potential deposition targets – and under oath, he would have to answer for every dollar that moved through those shell companies.
They can call it a witch hunt all they want – Congress spent thirteen months requesting records before Smith started demanding answers under oath. He's about to find out what $278 million bought.
Sources:
- Michael Dorgan, "Singham-linked nonprofits defy House ultimatum, blast 'MAGA-led witch hunt,'" Fox News Digital, October 22, 2026.
- Arthur Zhang, "House Panel Warns Singham-Linked Nonprofits Of Possible Depositions Over Subpoenas," The Epoch Times, October 19, 2026.
- House Ways and Means Committee, "Chairman Smith Issues Subpoenas to CCP-Linked Singham Network Nonprofits," waysandmeans.house.gov, July 24, 2026.
- House Ways and Means Committee, "IRS Hometown Association Letter," waysandmeans.house.gov, April 8, 2026.
- Rep. Darin LaHood, testimony on Singham funding structure, The Epoch Times, February 2026.
