House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith sent letters Monday to three U.S. nonprofits tied to an alleged “foreign-aligned influence network,” demanding internal documents as Congress expands its investigation into the groups that helped organize May Day demonstrations across the country last week.
The inquiry targets the People’s Forum, BreakThrough BT Media Inc., and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. All three nonprofits have received funding from Neville Roy Singham, an American-born tech entrepreneur living in Shanghai who has pumped a documented $278 million into the network since 2017, according to a Fox News Digital investigation.
Smith’s letters cite “significant concerns” about “foreign influence or control” in the U.S. and the “financing arrangements and the structure of a foreign-aligned influence network, not protected speech or association.”
The three organizations were central to May Day protests on May 1. In New York City, David Chung, organizing director of the People’s Forum, was filmed unloading pre-made protest signs from a black minivan in Union Square. The signs read: “TRUMP IS THE SYMPTOM. CAPITALISM IS THE DISEASE. SOCIALISM IS THE CURE!” They carried the name of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a self-declared Marxist communist group.
The same playbook ran in Washington, D.C., and cities nationwide. Foot soldiers from the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s D.C. chapter pulled identical bright yellow signs from a black Subaru Outback on 21st Street NW. A Fox News investigation found 600 organizations with a combined $2 billion in revenue mobilized more than 3,000 protests on May Day.
Smith ordered each nonprofit to hand over internal documents by May 18. The requests include communications with Singham, records of foreign-linked donations exceeding $5,000, contracts tied to fiscal sponsorship arrangements, communications with foreign principals, and lists of grant recipients based outside the United States.
“The Committee is considering whether legislative or regulatory reform is necessary to ensure that tax-exempt status is not used to facilitate or obscure foreign influence across an interconnected network of organizations,” Smith wrote in each letter.
BreakThrough and Tricontinental regularly publish content describing the United States as the “belly of the beast” and an “imperialist” power. Singham’s wife is Jodie Evans, co-founder of CodePink.
Smith alleged in his letter to the People’s Forum that Singham and Evans funneled money “through shell companies and donor-advised funds that, by design, obscure the true source of contributions.”
Trump administration officials in the Treasury, Justice, and State departments told Fox News Digital they are concerned that overseas interests are exploiting U.S. nonprofit laws to build what they described as “foreign malign influence” infrastructure, operating through tax-exempt organizations, donor-advised funds, shell companies, fiscal sponsorships, and media platforms.
The targeted groups pushed back. Their attorneys argue the inquiry is political, exceeds the committee’s jurisdiction, and threatens First Amendment protections. Smith rejected each argument in his letters, writing that “none of those challenges withstands scrutiny.”
Washington, D.C., attorney Andrew Herman is representing BreakThrough and Tricontinental. Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, is representing the People’s Forum. Neither attorney responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
The Ways and Means investigation is one part of a broader congressional effort. Lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight Committee have also been examining whether nonprofit law is equipped to address alleged foreign influence operations on U.S. soil.
The document deadline is May 18.
