Singham-funded nonprofits reject House records demand and brand probe a witch hunt

Two nonprofits linked to Shanghai tycoon Neville Roy Singham rejected a House ultimatum for financial records and blasted the probe as a MAGA-led witch hunt.

The People’s Forum Inc. and BreakThrough News refused to hand over the financial documents sought by the House Ways and Means Committee, answering instead with Oct. 20 letters that framed the demand as an attack on their political views and First Amendment rights.

Fox News Digital reported that the Republican-led committee had already warned the groups: comply with earlier subpoenas, or face depositions of their leaders and of Singham himself. Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., made that choice plain days before the deadline.

Smith’s Oct. 13 statement left little room to stall. The committee is examining whether millions routed through Singham’s network of tax-exempt nonprofits advance Chinese Communist Party interests inside the United States, and whether current tax law leaves the nonprofit sector open to foreign influence.

Smith draws a hard line on documents and oaths

Smith did not treat the money trail as a mystery. He said the public record already shows large sums moving into the groups, and he argued the real fight is over what remains hidden.

“Shanghai Singham has poured millions of dollars into these groups to take advantage of America's nonprofit sector and promote Chinese Communist Party propaganda. That much is public. What these groups are fighting to keep hidden is even more concerning,” Smith said.

"Shanghai Singham has poured millions of dollars into these groups to take advantage of America's nonprofit sector and promote Chinese Communist Party propaganda. That much is public. What these groups are fighting to keep hidden is even more concerning,"

He added a second line that set the clock: “Either these organizations turn over the documents, or their leaders will answer the Committee's questions under oath.”

"Either these organizations turn over the documents, or their leaders will answer the Committee's questions under oath."

Committee materials identify 21 people for potential questioning under oath, with Singham among them. The panel is also weighing whether Congress should tighten tax rules that govern foreign money in nonprofits. Lawmakers have seen this kind of stonewall before in other high-stakes Hill fights, including when a Senate committee moved to hold Fauci in contempt after repeated refusals to answer.

Groups answer with First Amendment claims, not ledgers

The People’s Forum, a New York City-based activist hub, and BreakThrough News, a far-left nonprofit media outlet, rejected the ultimatum rather than produce the records. Their letters accused the committee of shifting rationales, ignoring legal objections, and using deposition threats as pressure.

Attorneys for BreakThrough News said the approach put newsroom staff in the crosshairs. They wrote that the committee was threatening seven employees with depositions unless the outlet dropped its constitutional objections.

“This approach is tantamount to holding the staff of BreakThrough News hostage,” the attorneys said. They also stressed, “Mr. Singham is a U.S. citizen.”

The People’s Forum described a similar squeeze on eight staff members and cast the whole effort as political retaliation. In an Oct. 21 website statement, the group escalated the language and asked supporters for legal-defense donations.

“This is an escalation of the same MAGA-led witch-hunt,” the organization said, adding the line, “We won't surrender our First Amendment rights.”

"This is an escalation of the same MAGA-led witch-hunt,"

BreakThrough News argued the committee targeted the outlet over coverage of Israel and immigration enforcement. Ten press freedom and civil liberties groups, including PEN America, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, and the Society of Professional Journalists, sent their own Oct. 20 letter urging the committee to drop the investigation of the outlet and hold off on further subpoenas. They warned that forcing journalists to testify could chill press freedom.

Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, backed that push in a statement carried by BreakThrough News.

“Rep. Smith's shameless targeting of BreakThrough News for editorial viewpoints that he dislikes shows a complete disregard of the First Amendment,” Stern said.

"Rep. Smith's shameless targeting of BreakThrough News for editorial viewpoints that he dislikes shows a complete disregard of the First Amendment,"

Taxpayers have watched other congressional probes run into concealment claims and weakened safeguards, a pattern also raised in a congressional inquiry into ActBlue. The core question here remains simpler: when a House committee asks for financial records tied to foreign-influence concerns, do the groups produce the files or fight the subpoena?

Millions already on the public record

Singham is an American-born Marxist tech figure who lives in Shanghai. He sold the software firm ThoughtWorks for an estimated $785 million in 2017. A prior Fox News Digital investigation traced at least $278 million from him into six core U.S. nonprofits.

That earlier reporting put hard numbers on the three organizations now in the spotlight. The People’s Forum received $22.44 million. Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, a Massachusetts-based Marxist think tank named among potential witnesses, received $16.76 million. BreakThrough BT Media Inc., the parent tied to BreakThrough News, received $1.098 million. Combined, those figures reach about $40.3 million.

The committee’s case, as stated by Smith, is that Singham’s network used shell companies and donor-advised funds to move money through America’s nonprofit channel. Fox News Digital noted the committee has not publicly identified evidence that the organizations are actively concealing foreign-influence material. The committee also did not immediately respond to a request for comment after the Oct. 20 deadline.

Tricontinental had not publicly released a response to the latest demands at the time of the report. The People’s Forum and BreakThrough News chose defiance and a public fundraising appeal instead. Refusals to produce records tend to widen oversight fights in Washington, much as new document trails have done when Kennedy said Fauci knew he was lying after fresh communications surfaced.

Europe unrest coverage sits in the background

BreakThrough News promoted an online discussion titled “Europe's Youth Uprising,” with framing that “a rebellion is sweeping Europe.” Fox News Digital linked the outlet to sympathetic amplification of protests and unrest across Europe, including in France, where demonstrations and clashes with police have drawn wide coverage.

A related Fox presentation by senior investigations editor Asra Nomani described a wider “Chaos Inc” web of 101 global activist groups, communist organizations, and labor unions coordinating unrest. The House fight, though, centers on U.S. tax-exempt entities, subpoena compliance, and whether foreign-aligned money is moving through nonprofit structures Americans subsidize with tax advantages.

Smith’s committee is not asking for a press conference. It is asking for financial records. The groups answered with constitutional claims, staff-hostage language, and a donor drive. That exchange will sound familiar to readers who have followed other Hill battles in which investigators pressed for files and met delay, including calls for a special counsel after Fauci-related texts reached the surface.

Related coverage has also flagged Democracy Now! in the broader Singham funding picture, including claims the outlet paid a Singham-founded company millions and later blasted a subpoena on air. The Ways and Means standoff still turns on the two nonprofits that filed the Oct. 20 refusals and on whether deposition threats force sworn testimony if the documents stay locked away.

Foreign influence through tax-exempt groups is not a bookkeeping footnote. It is a test of whether Congress can inspect the money when nonprofit leaders say the inquiry itself is the offense. The public already has the sale price, the Shanghai residence, the multi-million-dollar totals, and the committee’s stated concern about Chinese Communist Party propaganda. What it does not have is the full set of records Smith demanded.

When organizations enjoy U.S. nonprofit status and then refuse the books, voters are right to ask whose interests get protected, the public’s, or the network that wants the ledgers closed.