Ex-Federal Reserve Official Sentenced for Lying to Investigators in Spy Case

A former high-ranking official at the Federal Reserve has been sentenced to 38 months in prison for lying to investigators about his involvement with an alleged Chinese spy. John Harold Rogers, 65, was arrested in January 2025 and subsequently found guilty of making false statements to federal agents.

Prosecutors alleged that Rogers, who oversaw research in the Fed's international finance division, was seduced by a Chinese intelligence operative known by the alias 'Hummin Lee,' identified as Jin Chuan. Their association began around 2013 when Rogers attended a Federal Reserve conference in Shanghai. Lee reportedly facilitated Rogers' relationship with a Chinese woman named Yu Liu, who was significantly younger than him. This relationship, which led to marriage in 2018, was allegedly orchestrated by Lee, who funded trips and even provided a divorce certificate to expedite the union.

During this period, Lee allegedly solicited sensitive information from Rogers regarding U.S. financial policy, China-U.S. relations, and trade policy, which Rogers reportedly shared.

Later, after a domestic dispute, Rogers allegedly turned to online dating sites again, using his Fed-issued phone to send explicit photos, some taken within Federal Reserve headquarters, to Instagram models. In 2020, Rogers alerted the central bank after facing extortion threats related to these explicit photos and concerns for his young daughter's safety. This confession inadvertently brought his contacts with Chinese operatives to the attention of federal investigators.

Rogers resigned from the Federal Reserve in 2021 and moved to Shanghai to teach at Fudan University. He was arrested by FBI agents in his Washington, D.C.-area neighborhood in January 2025. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro stated that Rogers "spent years secretly funneling sensitive Federal Reserve information to Chinese spies, then looked investigators in the eye and lied about it." Federal prosecutor Nicholas Hunter described the case as resembling a "spy novel," involving "sex. There was money, manipulation, secret meetings with shady characters in China, fake identities, lies, trickery, and deceit."

While Rogers was acquitted of an espionage charge, his conviction for making false statements resulted in the 38-month prison sentence handed down in July. A lawyer representing Rogers had previously stated that his client denied the allegations in the indictment.