Congress Turns Up the Heat on Foreign "Trojan Horse" Networks Hiding in Plain Sight

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A Hearing With a Loaded Name

Lawmakers on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South and Central Asia will gather on September 15 in Washington for a hearing called "Trojan Horses: Covert Foreign Malign Influence Operations in America." The name is no accident. In Greek myth, a wooden horse hid soldiers who opened the gates of Troy from within. Lawmakers say something similar may be happening today, with foreign money and messaging entering the U.S. through nonprofits that look ordinary on the surface.

The hearing is chaired by Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.), with Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) as the top Democrat. It falls under the wider House Foreign Affairs Committee, led by Chairman Brian Mast (R-Fla.), who has made countering the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) a top priority this year.

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Who Is Neville Roy Singham?

At the center of the story is Neville Roy Singham, an American-born businessman who sold his IT consulting firm Thoughtworks for $785 million in 2017 and then moved to Shanghai. Since then, he has poured tens of millions of dollars into a web of nonprofits, media outlets and activist groups, many of them sympathetic to communist causes.

According to CBS News, a federal grand jury in the Southern District of New York is investigating Singham over possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and over whether he lied on tax filings for the nonprofits he funds. Singham is married to Jodie Evans, co-founder of the group CodePink. Neither Singham nor Evans has been charged with any crime, and both deny acting on behalf of the Chinese government.

The House Ways and Means Committee, led by Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.), has already subpoenaed three organizations tied to Singham — The People's Forum, Tricontinental, and BreakThrough News — after they failed to hand over requested documents, according to the Washington Times. The groups have called the investigation a "witch hunt."

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Three Witnesses, Three Fronts

The September 15 hearing will feature three witnesses, each covering a different angle of the same broader concern:

Mike Gonzalez (Heritage Foundation) will focus on Cuba. He argues that Havana runs an active influence operation on American soil and describes the island as a base for "anti-American revolutionary organizing" in the Western Hemisphere.

Matthew Johnson (Jamestown Foundation) will speak on the Chinese Communist Party's broader political and technology strategy, an area he has studied for years.

Sam Lyman (Bitcoin Policy Institute) will present research linking the Singham-funded Party for Socialism and Liberation to protests against AI data centers across the country. His research found that campaigns involving the group have contributed to delaying or blocking an estimated $23.6 billion in planned data-center investment across 14 states.

Gonzalez put it bluntly: adversaries such as China and Cuba, along with some foreign-linked nonprofits, exploit the openness of American society — from schools to universities to museums — to spread their influence quietly.

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A Widening Web of Committees

This is not an isolated inquiry. The Senate Judiciary Committee, House Oversight Committee, and the House Select Committee on China have all opened related investigations into Singham's network. House Oversight Chairman James Comer went so far as to request a Justice Department briefing on whether Singham's funding ties to the Party for Socialism and Liberation connect to the 2025 unrest in Los Angeles.

The State Department's Office of Public Diplomacy, led by Undersecretary Sarah Rodgers, has also handed the subcommittee a report identifying foreign "vectors" of influence operating inside the United States — evidence that this issue now reaches well beyond a single donor or a single nonprofit.

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Why This Matters Going Forward

The Trump administration has already pushed to tighten export controls on advanced semiconductor technology to slow China's military and technological rise, a move Chairman Mast supported. This hearing signals that Congress wants to go further — treating foreign-funded influence campaigns as a national security issue, not just a tax or disclosure question.

For everyday Americans, the stakes are straightforward: transparency about who is funding activist groups, and whether foreign governments are using America's own institutions — its universities, media, and protest movements — to advance agendas that run counter to U.S. interests. Whether Congress moves toward new legislation, or simply more scrutiny, is likely to become clearer once the hearing wraps up next week.

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Sources

1. CBS News – "Husband of Code Pink founder being investigated under federal foreign agent and tax laws": https://www.cbsnews.com/news/husband-code-pink-founder-neville-roy-singham-investigation-tax-laws/
2. The Washington Times – "House panel subpoenas nonprofits linked to Shanghai-based mega-donor over Chinese influence": https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/jul/22/house-panel-subpoenas-nonprofits-linked-shanghai-based-mega-donor/
3. U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform – Official press release: https://oversight.house.gov/release/oversight-republicans-investigate-funding-behind-los-angeles-riots-linked-to-chinese-communist-party

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