Senator Accuses Shanghai-Based Billionaire of Waging "Political Warfare" Against America

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A Fiery Speech on the Senate Floor

Republican Senator Jim Banks of Indiana delivered a sharp warning from the Senate floor this week. His target: Neville Roy Singham, a 72-year-old American businessman who sold his technology company for $785 million in 2017 and has lived in Shanghai ever since.

Banks accused Singham of running a "political warfare campaign" against the United States. According to the senator, this campaign happens "right out in the open," not hidden in the shadows.

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Who Is Neville Roy Singham?

Singham built his fortune with the IT consulting firm Thoughtworks, which he founded in Chicago in the late 1980s. He sold the company to a private equity firm in 2017. Around the same time, he moved to China and married Jodie Evans, co-founder of the activist group Code Pink.

Singham has long described himself as a socialist. He was once a member of a Black nationalist-Maoist group in Detroit in the 1970s and has spoken favorably of both Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and China's political system, according to a Wikipedia entry noting his activities have prompted investigations by the US Department of Justice under both the Biden and second Trump administrations, and by the House Ways and Means Committee. He now works from an office in Shanghai that he reportedly shares with a Chinese state propaganda outlet, Banks said in his speech.

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The Code Pink Connection

Banks singled out Code Pink, a group known for confronting lawmakers in the halls of Congress. He claimed the organization once criticized China's human rights record — but stopped after Singham began funding it and married its co-founder.

The senator went further, saying that in recent years Code Pink has defended Beijing's treatment of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang. He also pointed to a newer Singham-funded group, No Cold War, which he described as devoted to weakening America's ability to counter Chinese pressure.

This is not the first time lawmakers have raised alarms about the network. Independent reporting has also connected Singham to other organizations, including the People's Forum, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and the ANSWER Coalition — all of which have received his financial backing.

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A Federal Investigation Is Already Underway

Singham is currently the subject of a grand jury investigation in the Southern District of New York. According to CBS News, the probe began by examining possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and has since expanded into a criminal tax investigation, focused on whether money was funneled unlawfully through nonprofits he controls and whether false statements were made on their tax filings.

No charges have been filed against Singham to date. He and his wife have not responded to repeated requests for comment from multiple news outlets.

Congress has also gotten involved. The House Ways and Means Committee opened its own investigation into the Singham network, and lawmakers have pressed major financial institutions on their ties to his funding activities. A Goldman Sachs spokesperson has said that all disbursements from Singham's donor-advised fund went to IRS-recognized nonprofits, and that the account was closed in early 2024 after no activity since August 2023.

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Part of a Broader Push Against "Far-Left" Networks

Banks connected his remarks to a recent push by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to treat far-left political violence as a global security concern. At a Washington summit attended by representatives from more than 60 countries, Rubio argued that international counterterrorism policy has ignored extremism from the political left for too long.

Rubio's initiative and the Singham investigation reflect a broader shift by the current U.S. administration toward scrutinizing foreign-linked funding of domestic activist networks — an approach that has drawn both support from Republican lawmakers and criticism from some commentators who see it as overreach.

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What Comes Next

The grand jury investigation is ongoing, and it remains unclear whether it will lead to formal charges. For now, Singham's case has become a flashpoint in the broader debate over Chinese Communist Party influence operations inside the United States — and over how Washington should respond to money flowing from abroad into domestic political and activist causes.

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Sources

1. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/top-senator-targets-alleged-ccp-linked-singham-network-senate-floor-speech-china
2. https://www.banks.senate.gov/news/press-releases/banks-delivers-remarks-on-the-senate-floor-calling-for-immediate-action-to-protect-american-elections/
3. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/husband-code-pink-founder-neville-roy-singham-investigation-tax-laws/
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Roy_Singham

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