The House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), has given three nonprofit groups until Oct. 20 to comply with congressional subpoenas seeking details on their financial ties to foreign nationals and entities.
The groups — The People’s Forum, BreakThrough News and Tricontinental — are all linked to Neville Roy Singham, a Shanghai-based millionaire with ties to the Chinese Communist Party. The committee’s subpoenas focus specifically on what it calls “fiscal sponsorships involving foreign nationals or foreign entities.”
“Shanghai Singham has poured millions of dollars into these groups to… That much is public,” Smith said. “But what these groups are fighting to keep hidden is even more concerning.”
According to figures cited by the committee, The People’s Forum has received $22.4 million from the Singham network, Tricontinental has received $16.8 million, and $1 million has gone to Breakthrough BT Media Inc.
A Disclosure Loophole
At issue is a legal gap that allows foreign nationals to route money through nonprofit intermediaries that then contribute to Super PACs without disclosing the original source of funds — sidestepping laws that otherwise bar foreign political donations.
Last month, Smith alleged that the Middle East Children’s Alliance, another group funded through the Singham network, “repeatedly funded organizations tied” to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which the United States has designated a terrorist organization.
Separately, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York opened a grand jury investigation in June into Singham and his network, examining potential money laundering, bank fraud and wire fraud.
Broader Allegations
The Singham network has been linked to demonstrations in support of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, as well as support for the governments of Venezuela and Cuba. It has also been tied to efforts to spread misinformation about artificial intelligence and data centers, which critics say is aimed at slowing U.S. technological development relative to China.
In February, threat-assessment expert Adam Sohn testified before Congress that funds tied to the network have financed disruptive activity including “police officers assaulted,” blockages at JFK and LAX airports, closures of the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, disruption of ambulances and commuters, blockades on Wall Street, halted commerce at Macy’s Herald Square, and targeting of immigration and law-enforcement facilities.
Sohn described the network as “a system for paralyzing American infrastructure on demand, financed through US tax law and aligned with a hostile foreign power.”
The Oct. 20 deadline set by Smith’s committee marks the latest step in a broader congressional effort to examine whether tax-exempt nonprofit status is being used to shield foreign-linked funding from public disclosure.
