Fed Official Sent Nude Photos From Work Phone, Was Blackmailed, Then Jailed Over Lies About China Ties

A former senior adviser at the US Federal Reserve who took nude photographs of himself on his Fed-issued phone, some in the gym at the central bank's Washington headquarters, was blackmailed over the images and later jailed for lying to investigators about his ties to China.

John Harold Rogers, now 65, was sentenced on 15 July to 38 months in federal prison and 12 months of supervised release for making false statements, the Justice Department said. A jury convicted him on 3 February 2026 but acquitted him of conspiracy to commit economic espionage. Prosecutors had sought 60 months.

On 30 September, CNBC published texts, investigators' recordings, and court exhibits from the case. Rogers, the Fed, and its inspector general declined to comment.

Blackmail Over Instagram Photos Led Him to Fed Investigators

As his second marriage broke down, Rogers sent nude photos of himself to Instagram accounts featuring women, reports said. The people running them, described as online scammers, demanded money. Claiming to know his workplace and car, they threatened to send the photos to Richard Clarida, then the Fed's vice chair, and to kidnap his 18-month-old daughter.

Rogers testified that the threats left him 'very scared and wanting to protect my family.' On 2 February 2020, he told his superiors, who referred him to the inspector general's office. The Fed's cybersecurity team already had concerns about his China trips and his relationship with a man named Hummin Lee.

Two days later, he sat for a voluntary interview with special agent Alan Hershkowitz. In a recording obtained by CNBC, Hershkowitz asks if he has ever taken a nude photo of himself. Rogers says 'No', then, when pressed, 'I can't rule it out.'

Asked whether he had shared restricted Fed information outside the Board, he replied, 'Never'.

Prosecutors said he had sent such a document to a co-author at Fudan University in Shanghai. His lawyers argued the answer was false but not knowingly so, saying he was emotional over the photos and blackmail and could not have recalled every file he shared.

The Shanghai Contact Who Witnessed His Prenup

Rogers, who worked in the Fed's Division of International Finance from 2010 until 2021, met Hummin Lee in 2013 at a Dallas Fed conference at Fudan, where Lee introduced himself as a PhD student. US officials believe Lee's real name is Jin Chuan and that he is a Chinese intelligence operative.

On New Year's Eve 2016, Rogers, a single father, met Yu Liu, known as Yu Yu, a Shanghai woman 24 years his junior, on AsianDating.com. Reports said it is unclear whether Yu Yu has any links to the Chinese government.

Lee was said to have organised expenses-paid lecture trips to China, helped secure Yu Yu's divorce, assisted with the couple's March 2018 wedding in Hong Kong, and witnessed their prenuptial agreement.

'I owe everything to him,' Rogers told investigators, referring to Lee.

Hotel-Room 'Classes' and Restricted Fed Papers

The Justice Department said Rogers used 'classes' in Chinese hotel rooms to convey Fed information Lee had tasked him to collect. After Lee sent questions that included how the Fed viewed Donald Trump's proposed trade war with China, Rogers asked colleagues for material, telling them his hosts seemed to want 'some kind of Fed secrets they believe exist.'

Prosecutors said Rogers knew China could use advance knowledge of interest-rate decisions to profit from trading its roughly $1.5T (£1.1T) in US Treasuries. In 2023, he was paid about $450,000 (£336,000) as a part-time professor at a Chinese university, the Justice Department said. Agents later found $55,000 (£41,000) in cash at his Vienna, Virginia, home, some in a grocery bag in a closet. Trial testimony showed investigators could not establish its source.

From Resignation to Arrest at a School Bus Stop

Rogers resigned instead of being terminated in spring 2021 and began teaching at Fudan. After a Fed referral, FBI agents arrested him at a school bus stop on 31 January 2025 while he walked his dog, days before he was due to travel to China with his wife and their six-year-old daughter. He was charged with conspiracy to commit economic espionage and making false statements.

After the sentencing, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Rogers 'spent years secretly funnelling sensitive Federal Reserve information to Chinese spies, then looked investigators in the eye and lied about it.'

A Fed inspector general report released that day found the Board had no process for identifying its critical assets and no centralised insider risk programme. The Board accepted all nine recommendations.

Asked at trial who he believed Lee to be, Rogers replied, 'A spy'. Asked how that made him feel, he said, 'Duped', adding, 'He was my friend.'