A Chinese billionaire living in Shanghai pumped $39 million into American activist groups – and nobody was supposed to ask questions.
Now House Republicans are on the case.
And Congress has a tool that their lawyers cannot argue away.
How the Singham Network Used CCP Dark Money to Fund American Chaos
Neville Roy Singham is not a household name – and that is exactly how he wanted it.
The American-born tech tycoon sold his software company, ThoughtWorks, for $785 million in 2017.
Singham moved to Shanghai, China and the money started flowing.
Fox News Digital's five-part investigation mapped $285 million moving from Singham through Goldman Sachs donor-advised funds and now-defunct shell companies into a sprawling web of left-wing nonprofits, activist hubs, and media operations spanning 67 core organizations across five continents.
Three of those organizations – the People's Forum, BreakThrough News, and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research – received a combined $39 million.
The People's Forum pulled in $22.44 million.
Tricontinental collected $16.76 million.
BreakThrough News received just over $1 million – enough to keep its cameras running and its pro-Beijing messaging on the air.
Tricontinental does not hide what it is.
The organization describes its work as anchored in "national liberation Marxism."
The People's Forum organized and promoted national student walkouts and protests when ICE arrested Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil.
These are not think tanks debating policy.
These are street-level operations funded by a man who shares office space with organizations that display banners praising Xi Jinping – and who attended CCP workshops focused on overseas messaging.
People's Forum and CCP-Linked Nonprofits Stonewalled Congress for Months
The House Ways and Means Committee – chaired by Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri – first requested records from the People's Forum in September 2025.
BreakThrough News and Tricontinental received their requests in February.
The organizations did not comply.
In May, committee staff sent narrower requests, giving the groups one final chance to produce documents before compulsory action.
The organizations still did not comply.
And their attorneys argued the committee lacked a sufficiently clear legislative purpose.
They argued it infringed on First Amendment rights.
BreakThrough News invoked freedom-of-the-press protections.
The People's Forum compared the investigation to a witch hunt by the House Un-American Activities Committee.
The committee rejected every argument – and issued subpoenas this week with a August 7 deadline.
"Your responses have failed to include a single responsive document and misrepresented both the scope and purpose of the Committee's oversight," the letters state. "Accordingly, the Committee is invoking compulsory process to obtain the requested materials."
The Manhattan Grand Jury and the Chinese Influence Operation Behind the Money
The congressional subpoenas are not the only legal pressure closing in on Singham's network.
A federal grand jury in Manhattan – launched by U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York – is investigating possible wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, and other financial crimes.
No charges have been announced.
Singham's first run-in with federal investigators dates to 1974, when the FBI examined whether he was engaged in activities harmful to U.S. interests.
More than fifty years later, a federal grand jury is asking the same basic question with far more evidence.
Singham now lives in Shanghai – which is the problem.
A former federal prosecutor told Fox News that his move to China essentially shields him from being subpoenaed by U.S. authorities.
The shell companies and donor-advised funds were built for exactly this purpose: to put so many layers between Singham and the American organizations spending his money that tracing it back becomes a legal obstacle course.
Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana didn’t pull any punches.
"Neville Singham is a traitor to our country," Banks told Fox News. "He has ties to the CCP."
Beijing's Strategy of Sowing Discord and the Foreign Agent Laws They Ignored
Under General Secretary Xi, the CCP executes what investigators call the "Strategy of Sowing Discord" – funding and amplifying internal conflicts inside adversary nations until those nations collapse under the weight of their own division.
Singham's organizations showed up at anti-Israel demonstrations and organized opposition to ICE.
His money funded pro-Cuba propaganda.
One confessed Chinese agent was already found to have donated to Democrat political campaigns.
A former California mayor pleaded guilty to acting as a secret agent of China.
Beijing's influence apparatus works through organizations that look, on the surface, like ordinary American civic life.
Chairman Smith has promised to pursue legislation to close the tax loopholes that made this possible.
"The American people deserve to know whether the CCP has exploited America's tax-exempt sector to advance its agenda," Smith said.
August 7 is the moment three left-wing organizations have to decide whether they will finally answer that question – or hand Congress its next move.
Sources:
- Asra Q. Nomani and Michael Dorgan, "House panel subpoenas 3 left-wing groups in probe of $39M tied to Marxist tycoon Neville Singham," Fox News Digital, July 22, 2026.
- Jason Smith, "Protecting America's Tax-Exempt Sector from Foreign Influence," jasonsmith.house.gov, July 24, 2026.
- "ICYMI: Chairman Smith Issues Subpoenas to CCP-Linked Singham Network Nonprofits," Ways and Means Committee, July 24, 2026.
- "Comer and Luna Ramp Up Probe into CCP-Linked Funding Fueling Civil Unrest in the United States," House Oversight Committee, September 15, 2025.
- "Grand jury subpoenas target left-wing megadonor Neville Roy Singham's nonprofit network in New York," Heritage Review, July 2026.
- "Expert explains CCP's strategy following DOJ inquiry of billionaire Neville Roy Singham," The National Desk, July 2026.
