"He Helped With Love, Marriage, and Even a Child": 10-Year Close Friend Turned Out to Be a Chinese Spy... A 27-Year Veteran at the Fed Brought Down by Friendship

Building a Decade-Long Relationship Through Romance and Marriage

Leaking Fed Economic Outlook and FOMC Documents

It has been revealed that a Chinese intelligence agent was deeply involved in the private life of a senior official at the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed), assisting in areas ranging from dating, marriage, to childbirth, as part of efforts to recruit him.

John Harold Rogers and his wife. Photo by New York Post

According to CNBC and the New York Post on September 30 (local time), there is evidence that China intervened in the personal affairs of former Fed senior adviser John Harold Rogers during its attempts to recruit him.

Rogers, a veteran economist who spent 27 years at the Fed, was indicted on charges of providing internal Fed information to a Chinese intelligence agent and was arrested last year by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Although he was acquitted of conspiring to commit economic espionage, he was found guilty of making false statements to investigators and was sentenced to 38 months in prison this past July.

Chinese intelligence agent Jin Chuan, who used the name Heo Min Ri. The New York Post

The Chinese intelligence agent who approached Rogers was Jin Chuan, who went by the name "Heo Min Ri." After meeting Rogers at an academic conference at Fudan University in Shanghai in 2013, Li maintained regular contact, sending gifts on birthdays and Christmas to build rapport.

The pivotal moment that brought the two closer was related to Rogers' romantic life. In 2016, Rogers met Liu Yu, a married woman 24 years his junior, through an online dating site. Liu Yu, who is also suspected to have some connections to Chinese intelligence agencies, divorced her husband and married Rogers.

Li arranged for Rogers, who was in the U.S., to meet Liu Yu by organizing university lectures and trips to China, covering all associated costs. Li also supported the divorce procedures with Liu Yu’s ex-husband, aided with the wedding, and even assisted after the birth of their daughter. During the investigation, Rogers testified, "Without him, neither the baby nor my relationship with my wife would have happened," and added, "I love him like a brother."

Roger and Min Lee. New York Post

After gaining Rogers' trust, Li began to request information related to the Fed. He asked Rogers for assessments of China's financial market opening and the U.S.-China trade war, and then requested feedback from Fed colleagues or related documents.

In 2018, Rogers handed Li documents from which he had arbitrarily removed the "Fed internal use only" label. The following year, investigators found he took Fed economic forecasts and Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) materials to China.

Rogers was arrested by the FBI in January 2025. During the investigation, Rogers claimed he did not know that Li was a Chinese intelligence agent.

When questioned by investigators about whether he had ever leaked internal Fed information to outsiders, Rogers replied, "Never." Prosecutors considered this a false statement, but Rogers' defense argued the response was made under extreme pressure. Later in court, when asked what he thought of Li, Rogers answered, "I think he is a spy."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.