A congressional standoff over foreign money flowing into American activist groups has reached a breaking point. The House Ways and Means Committee, after weeks of stonewalling, moved this month to force three left-wing nonprofits into compliance through formal subpoenas.
At the center of the dispute sits Neville Roy Singham, a former U.S. tech executive who now calls Shanghai home.
Federal lawmakers say his money has quietly built a sprawling network of American nonprofits, and they want the paper trail.
Three organizations now face legal compulsion: BreakThrough News, the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, and The People’s Forum.
Each had been given until May 18 to hand over documents after Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., first requested them in letters dated May 4, 2026. None complied.
Smith’s patience ran out. The subpoenas now demand what the letters could not secure — a full accounting of how foreign money moved through these organizations’ books.
Investigators want records stretching back nearly a decade.
Any fiscal sponsorship arrangement involving foreign funds or foreign entities since 2017 must be disclosed, along with contracts linking sponsored projects to foreign nationals.
The committee is also chasing internal communications — specifically, any correspondence between staff at these organizations and Singham or other foreign principals touching on finances, governance, or organizational structure.
Donor transparency is another target.
The subpoenas require a full list of foreign donors who gave more than $5,000, whether the money arrived directly or was laundered through shell companies and donor-advised funds.
A roster of overseas grant recipients is demanded as well.
This is not the committee’s first swing at the issue.
Earlier correspondence from Smith’s office zeroed in on a web of tax-exempt groups allegedly tied to Singham’s fortune, laying out dollar figures that raised eyebrows on Capitol Hill.
Those figures were striking.
The People’s Forum allegedly pulled in more than $20 million from Singham and his wife between 2017 and 2022 — money the committee says passed through shell companies and donor-advised funds before landing in the organization’s accounts.
BreakThrough News fared smaller but still substantial, reportedly collecting over $1 million since 2020 through vehicles including the Justice and Education Fund, the Progress Unity Fund, and the Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund.
The committee’s stated mission goes beyond simple fact-finding.
Officials say they are probing whether existing tax-exempt laws are equipped to handle this style of foreign-aligned funding, and whether Congress’s original intent behind granting tax-exempt status is being honored — or exploited.
Legislative reform is now on the table.
The panel has signaled openness to new rules designed to stop tax-exempt status from becoming a shield for foreign influence operations hiding behind a web of interconnected nonprofits.
Smith made his frustration public in the May 18 letter accompanying the subpoenas.
“The legal delays that these Singham-backed organizations have put forward are completely without merit. As we continue our investigation into the tax-exempt sector, there is urgency on the Committee’s part to determine whether and how non-profit funding sources and fiscal sponsorships may have helped to sow chaos and violence in the United States on behalf of foreign actors. Accordingly, we have demanded BreakThrough News, Tricontinental, and The People’s Forum provide documents relevant to our investigation by May 18th.”
He warned that further resistance would only invite harsher measures, saying the committee stands ready to deploy every oversight tool available to it.
Capitol Hill isn’t the only battlefield. Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have launched their own criminal probe into Singham’s financial dealings, independent of the congressional effort.
That investigation has already yielded subpoenas targeting bank records and financial documents, with prosecutors reportedly examining whether the funding scheme crossed legal lines into money laundering, wire fraud, or bank fraud.
The scale of money involved is staggering.
A Fox News report put the total at roughly $278 million funneled by Singham into a nonprofit network since 2017, with much of it passing through concealment vehicles like the Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund.
That network reportedly extends well beyond the three subpoenaed groups, allegedly reaching CodePink Women for Peace, the ANSWER Coalition, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation — organizations known for aggressive left-wing activism and, in some cases, alleged ties to violent demonstrations.
Whether the subpoenas will finally pry loose the requested documents remains to be seen, but the twin investigations — one congressional, one criminal — suggest Singham’s funding network is now under more scrutiny than at any point since it first drew federal attention.
