A former senior Federal Reserve official who sought love on an Asian dating site became entangled with an alleged Chinese spy — then got blackmailed over nude photos, according to a report.
FBI agents arrested John Harold Rogers, 65, in his Washington, DC-area neighborhood in January 2025 as he walked his spaniel, Prada, just days before a planned trip to China with his wife and daughter, CNBC reported Wednesday.
The longtime economist was acquitted of conspiring to commit economic espionage, but convicted of making false statements to investigators and sentenced in July to 38 months in federal prison.
“The facts of this case read like a spy novel,” federal prosecutor Nicholas Hunter told jurors.
“There was sex. There was money, manipulation, secret meetings with shady characters in China, fake identities, lies, trickery, and deceit.”
Rogers fatefully crossed paths with Hummin Lee at a 2013 Shanghai conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Lee was an alias for Jin Chuan, whom they identified as a Chinese intelligence operative, the FBI later said.
At the time, Rogers was a senior adviser overseeing research in the Fed’s international finance division, putting him in a sensitive position inside the powerful central bank.
Lonely after his four grown children moved away, the single father turned to AsianDating.com, where he sent nude photos to people he met online, according to CNBC.
Lee gradually became entwined in Rogers’ life, sending gifts, arranging university lectures in China and helping Rogers pursue a relationship with Yu Liu, known as Yu Yu, a Shanghai woman 24 years Rogers’ junior whom he met on AsianDating.com in late 2016, according to CNBC.
The romance moved quickly, with Lee organizing trips that allowed the couple to spend time together and helping with travel expenses, the report said. Yu Yu became pregnant during Rogers’ second visit, and the economist soon proposed, CNBC found.
Yu Yu was still married, however, and Lee stepped in when her husband sought 80,000 yuan — about $12,000 — to sign the divorce papers, according to the report. Just over seven hours after promising to help, Lee reportedly sent Rogers photos of a newly issued divorce certificate.
Rogers and Yu Yu married in Hong Kong in March 2018. Lee reportedly helped arrange the wedding, signed their prenup as a witness and later accompanied the couple to the hospital for the birth of their daughter.
“I owe everything to him,” Rogers later told investigators.
“The baby wouldn’t have happened, the relationship with my wife wouldn’t have happened […] And I love him like a brother.”
At the same time, Lee was reportedly pressing Rogers for information about the Fed, including questions about US monetary policy, China and the Trump administration’s trade views.
Rogers later shared Fed materials with Lee, though his lawyers disputed whether the information was sensitive or improperly disclosed, according to CNBC.
Meanwhile, Rogers’ marriage deteriorated with Yu Yu accusing him of seeing other women and another woman later moving into his Virginia home CNBC reported. The two women eventually got into a physical altercation, according to the article.
Rogers then returned to seeking companionship online, exchanging messages on Instagram with accounts featuring attractive women and sending nude photos from his Fed-issued phone, including images taken at the central bank’s headquarters.
The people behind the accounts began demanding money, threatening to send the photos to a senior Fed official and to kidnap Rogers’ young daughter.
The blackmail prompted Rogers to alert Fed officials in 2020, drawing him into a broader investigation of his China contacts.
When investigators asked whether he had ever shared restricted Fed information outside the central bank, Rogers replied, “Never.”
Prosecutors later said that was false. Rogers’ lawyers argued that he had been distressed by the blackmail and had not deliberately lied.
Rogers resigned from the Fed in 2021 and later taught at Fudan University in China. Federal agents arrested him years later.
“John Rogers spent years secretly funneling sensitive Federal Reserve information to Chinese spies, then looked investigators in the eye and lied about it. And when that wasn’t enough, he lied again under oath at trial,” Washington’s US Attorney Jeanine Pirro, whose office prosecuted Rogers, said in a statement.
Asked at trial who he now believed Lee was, Rogers answered: “A spy.”
How did that make him feel?
“Duped,” he replied.
Jonathan Gitlen, a lawyer for Rogers, told CNBC: “Dr. Rogers denies the allegations as set forth in the indictment. Dr. Rogers will have a further comment at a later date.”
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