FILE PHOTO: The Federal Reserve building is seen in Washington, U.S., Jan. 26, 2022.
Joshua Roberts | Reuters
A former senior advisor for the Federal Reserve was arrested Friday on charges that he conspired to steal Fed trade secrets for the benefit of China.
The data that the advisor, John Rogers, shared with his co-conspirators could allow China to manipulate the U.S. market “in a manner similar to insider trading,” the Department of Justice said.
The co-conspirators were members of China’s intelligence and security apparatus who posed as graduate students at a university in that country, according to prosecutors.
Rogers, a 63-year-old resident of Vienna, Virginia, worked as a senior advisor in the international finance division of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 2010 until 2021, the DOJ said. As part of that job, he “was entrusted with confidential FRB information,” according to the department.
“From at least 2018, Rogers allegedly exploited his employment with the FRB by soliciting trade-secret information regarding proprietary economic data sets, deliberations about tariffs targeting China, briefing books for designated governors, and sensitive information about Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) deliberations and forthcoming announcements,” the DOJ said.
“He passed that information electronically to his personal email account, in violation of FRB policy, or printed it prior to traveling to China, in preparation for meetings with his co-conspirators. Under the guise of teaching ‘classes,’ Rogers met with his co-conspirators in hotel rooms in China where he conveyed sensitive, trade-secret information that belonged to the FRB and the FOMC.”
This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.
