Australian arrested for allegedly selling information to foreign spies

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The Australian Federal Police mentioned Alexander Csergo, 55, had been compiling experiences for 2 overseas spies identified to him as “Ken” and “Evelyn”.

The pair supplied to pay Csergo for info on Australia’s “nationwide safety preparations”, police mentioned, with out naming which intelligence company they had been allegedly working for.

“Espionage and overseas interference pose a severe menace to Australia’s sovereignty, safety and integrity of our nationwide establishments,” police added.

Csergo, an IT and advertising and marketing specialist, was arrested in Sydney on Friday night, and briefly appeared in a neighborhood court docket through video hyperlink on Saturday morning.

He was first approached whereas he was working abroad by a person who claimed to be representing a think-tank, police unhappy.

That particular person organized for Csergo to satisfy the pair often called “Ken” and “Evelyn”.

Assistant police commissioner Krissy Barrett mentioned Ken and Evelyn work for a “overseas intelligence service and are enterprise intelligence assortment actions”.

Barrett mentioned different Australians could have been approached.

Csergo is charged with one rely of “reckless overseas interference” — carrying a most jail sentence of 15 years — and is simply the second individual to be charged underneath anti-spying legal guidelines handed by the previous conservative authorities in 2018.

He is because of reappear in court docket on Monday.

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