Pay no attention to the man in Shanghai

“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” The Wizard of Oz bellowed it right before Toto exposed him. This week, Fox News Digital reported that Neville Roy Singham and his wife, CodePink co-founder Jodie Evans, have given more than $47,000 combined to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Chuy García (D-IL). Both are American citizens living in Shanghai.The checks are small, and U.S. citizens may give from abroad. Cash that shapes American politics should show its work, and I support the Justice Department and the FBI in following the paper trail.Fox reports that after selling ThoughtWorks, Singham directed $285 million to nonprofit organizations and media groups, including $22.4 million to The People’s Forum. The House Ways and Means Committee says the money moved through shell companies and donor-advised funds that hid its source, and it subpoenaed three of the groups in July. CBS News reports that a federal grand jury in Manhattan is investigating, in an inquiry that began with the Foreign Agents Registration Act and grew to include tax filings. Singham has not been charged. He says he takes orders from no government or party. Until a court says otherwise, he is innocent. I have spent more than 30 years in private equity and private credit, and I testify as an expert witness in fiduciary disputes. Layered entities have legitimate uses. They also hide the payer. I run a small advisory firm and answer to regulators for what I disclose. Justice Louis Brandeis put it well: “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.”Jayapal received a net $35,700 from 2016 to 2022. Omar’s campaign took $4,200, Sanders’ campaigns at least $6,800, and García’s campaign $1,000. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) campaign returned a $500 check from Evans the day it arrived in 2018, proof the refund button exists.Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) says CodePink has received over $1.4 million since 2017, about 25% of its funding, from sources linked to Singham. Yet, Fox found that Medea Benjamin’s family foundation gave the group nearly $3.2 million between 2009 and 2024, more than twice the roughly $1.33 million from the Singham network. Writing checks and giving orders are separate acts. Does this make Singham the puppet master of the Democratic Party? No record I can source says so, and I will not claim what I cannot prove. A few thousand dollars scattered across four campaigns over a decade will not buy a party. What $285 million buys is the question a grand jury is asking.Compare George Soros. His prosecutor money runs through the Justice & Public Safety PAC, and the filings are public. His son Alex’s Democracy PAC sent it roughly $1.7 million between March 2025 and April 2026. I believe prosecutors who drop sentencing enhancements and misdemeanors put repeat offenders back on the street, and Los Angeles County voters ousted George Gascon in 2024. Disclosed money gave voters something to vote against. Hidden money gives them nothing.Defenders call it a witch hunt. Per the committee’s letter, attorneys for The People’s Forum likened the inquiry to the 1950s House Un-American Activities Committee. Goldman Sachs says every distribution from Singham’s donor-advised fund went to IRS-approved nonprofit organizations. Giving to a lawful nonprofit organization is lawful, and Americans may fund causes I find repulsive. HUAC interrogated communist beliefs. A subpoena for bank records tests facts. Federal law bars foreign nationals from funding elections directly or indirectly, and FARA requires disclosure from anyone acting for a foreign principal. If the books are clean, the records will say so.RANCHERS WANT A JURY. WASHINGTON STATE OFFERS A BOARDLet the Southern District of New York finish and let the FBI do the work Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) requested in April 2025, with no charging decisions made on cable news. Revive FARA enforcement, which Pam Bondi, now the former attorney general, deprioritized on her first day. Pass the transparency bills Ways and Means approved in July. Campaigns should vet donors, since the Federal Election Commission treats a donor living abroad as a flag.Toto needed no warrant. Investigators do, and a grand jury has issued them. After years of coaching youth sports, I know rules mean nothing if the referee calls fouls on only one side. Pull the curtain all the way. If it reveals a rich man with strong opinions, we say so and move on. If it reveals more, voters deserve to know who has been working on them. The Wizard begged us to look away. That is reason enough to look.Jay Rogers is a financial professional with more than 30 years of experience in private equity, private credit, hedge funds, and wealth management. He writes about issues in finance, constitutional law, national security, human nature, and public policy.