John H. Rogers (2013 – 2024)

John H. Rogers

John H. Rogers (2013 – 2024) Economic Espionage, Lying to federal investigators

Starting in 2013, John H. Rogers, PhD. responded to requests from China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) officers posing as graduate students at Shandong University of Finance and Economic.  Rogers was approached in 2013 at a conference in Shanghai.  

Rogers obtained and transmitted to MSS officers trade secrets of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (FRB) and the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee. Rogers made false statements to the Federal Reserve Board Office of Inspector General concerning his relationship with his Chinese contacts and the information he passed.

Rogers exploited his employment with the FRB by collecting trade-secret information regarding proprietary economic data sets, briefing books for designated governors and sensitive information about FOMC deliberations and forthcoming announcements. Rogers passed that information electronically to his personal email account or printed and hand carried it to China, for meetings with MSS officers.

Under the guise of teaching university classes, Rogers met his MSS handles in hotel rooms in China where he would convey sensitive, trade-secret information belonging to the FRB and the FOMC. Rogers has limited Chinese-language skills and relies heavily on translation tools and platforms or interpreters to communicate with non-English speakers.  The MSS used Fudan University (specifically the Fanhai International School of Finance) as the primary institution used to funnel $450k in payments to Rogers. The university encouraged him to apply for high-profile research grants. Once awarded, his three-year, $300,000 grant was paid completely up front in a single lump sum, allowing him to receive over $400,000 in one year for teaching a single class.

His MSS Handler (Hummin Lee) purported to be interested in learning about sensitive FRB fiscal policy to draft papers for the Research Institute of International Politics and Economics (RIIPE), and ultimately for the benefit of Shandong Province. Additionally, Hummin tasked Rogers to gather confidential information belonging to the FRB.  A second MSS officer (Jin Chuan) stated he was also a graduate student at the Research Institute of International Politics and Economics.

MSS handlers took extreme care in handling Rogers.  Rogers married Liu Yu in 2018 after meeting through a Chinese matchmaking service (she spoke almost no English).  The MSS assisted Rogers with the paperwork, exit visa for his wife, arranged hospital visits for her pregnancy, etc. Rogers told US investigators he “owed everything” to Hummin Lee.

MSS handlers used Google Chat and WeChat platforms to coordinate travel logistics, assign specific information-gathering tasks, and discuss the topics they wanted Rogers to target.

Tasking

• Opportunity and challenge of interest rate marketization.

• Monetary policy and asset bubbles.

• Transmission mechanism of U.S monetary policy to international financial market.

• Impact of FTA (Free Trade Area) on exchange rate.

• Exchange rate and international bulk commodity prices.

• Names from forensic analysis of phone/computer.

Tradecraft

• MSS officer Huminn Lee approached Rogers in 2013 at a conference in Shanghai.

• Used Google Chat encrypted messaging application to communicate about logistics, tasking, and information. 

• Hand carried and transferred information in person.

• The MSS officers arranged and paid for airfare, lodging, and dining for Rogers to travel to multiple cities in China. MSS officers provided gifts for Rogers.

• Hummin Lee actively collaborated on WeChat to fabricate a paper trail to satisfy Federal Reserve ethics and security officials. They devised fake course titles, student lists, grades, points, and a course syllabus. In their communications, they explicitly placed words like "class" and "grade" in quotation marks to maintain the front.

• Rogers concealed the nature of the conspiracy by making false statements to the Federal Reserve Office of Inspector General.

• The MSS officer created an email account in the cover name of Hummin Lee. Additional accounts were set up for covert communications with Rogers (johnhohkcu@gmail.com,

• hummin.lee@gmail.com, jinchuan0323@gmail.com, aegjrogers@gmail.com, m.sebastian.mima@gmail.com)

  • Email accounts were used exclusively for communication with Rogers, a handful of people associated with Rogers, and signing up for online accounts (WeChat, Google Chat).

• MSS officers suggested transferring payments through wife Liu Yu.   

Status: Convicted of lying to federal investigators in 2026