House panel subpoenas 3 left-wing groups in probe of $39M tied to Marxist tycoon Neville Singham

FIRST ON FOX: The powerful House Ways and Means Committee has subpoenaed three left-wing nonprofits in an investigation into more than $39 million that flowed from Marxist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham to the groups, Fox News Digital has learned.

In three letters dated July 21 and obtained by Fox News Digital, the committee accused the three nonprofits of failing to turn over a "single responsive document" to earlier requests for information.

The committee, led by Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., issued the subpoenas to the People’s Forum Inc., a New York-based activist hub; BreakThrough News, a left-wing nonprofit media outlet; and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, which says its work is anchored in "national liberation Marxism."

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The legislative action emerges as far-left nonprofits face growing scrutiny from law enforcement agencies, policymakers and federal agencies for their alleged roles in promoting communist propaganda, engaging in money laundering schemes and fomenting discord and even political violence. Last week, Secretary of State Rubio convened a summit of 65 nations to counter "far-left terrorism.

On Monday, the State Department released a 100-page report on a network of U.S. organizations that allegedly promote propaganda for the communist regime in Cuba.

The panel said it is investigating whether existing laws governing tax-exempt organizations adequately protect against foreign influence — and whether Congress needs to change those laws. The letters cite a five-part Fox News Digital investigation published in March that exposed the flow of $285 million from Singham into a sprawling international network of nonprofits, activist groups and media operations.

"Your responses have failed to include a single responsive document and misrepresented both the scope and purpose of the Committee’s oversight," the nearly identical letters state. "Accordingly, the Committee is invoking compulsory process to obtain the requested materials."

Singham network

The panel alleges that Singham channeled money through shell companies and donor-advised funds before reaching the three tax-exempt groups. Such arrangements, the committee said, can allow foreign-linked funding to pass through intermediaries that "by design, obscure the original source of the contribution."

Singham is an American-born technology tycoon and longtime Marxist activist who sold his software company, ThoughtWorks, for an estimated $785 million in 2017 and now lives in Shanghai. He has since poured hundreds of millions of dollars into organizations advancing socialist and communist causes in the United States and around the world, according to Fox News Digital’s investigation.

The Fox News Digital investigation found Singham pumped $22.44 million to People’s Forum, $16.76 million to Tricontinental and $1.098 million to Breakthrough BT Media Inc., a parent of its media arm. The committee cited Fox News Digital reporting.

In a hearing earlier this year on malign foreign influence on U.S. nonprofits, Smith said Singham maintains business ties with people and companies linked to the Chinese Communist Party and works alongside a Chinese propaganda company.

The committee first sought records from the People’s Forum in September 2025 and from BreakThrough News and Tricontinental in February.

After attorneys for the organizations refused to comply, the panel issued narrower requests on May 4.

The committee asked for records about foreign-linked funding and projects whose finances the groups managed. It also sought contracts tied to foreign people or organizations, communications with Singham about the groups’ finances or operations, contacts with other foreign interests, foreign donors who gave more than $5,000 and grants sent overseas.

Attorneys for the organizations argued that the committee lacked a sufficiently clear legislative purpose, improperly invoked the Foreign Agents Registration Act and infringed on First Amendment rights, according to the committee’s account of their objections. BreakThrough News also invoked freedom-of-the-press protections.

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The attorneys later argued that the committee had "changed materially" the purpose of its investigation without adjusting its demands, leaving the organizations unable to determine whether the requested records were relevant.

Attorneys for the People’s Forum also compared the investigation to a "witch hunt" by the House Un-American Activities Committee of the 1950s and questioned whether the Ways and Means Committee had jurisdiction to investigate potential issues involving the Foreign Agents Registration Act, according to the panel’s letter.

The committee rejected those arguments, maintaining that it is investigating the organizations’ finances and structures — not their political views or reporting — and whether tax-exempt laws allow foreign-linked money to move through intermediaries without public disclosure.

"The Committee’s inquiry here is directed at financial arrangements and organizational structure, specifically whether existing tax-exempt law adequately guards against foreign-influenced funding networks of the kind documented in public reporting about Mr. Singham’s activities," the letter to the People’s Forum states.

The panel said the organizations’ failure to produce "a single responsive document" left it with no choice but to compel their compliance. The subpoenas require the groups to turn over the requested materials by Aug. 7.

Smith told Fox News Digital that the subpoenas would help expose whether America’s tax laws and charitable sector "have been exploited to advance the CCP’s influence operations inside the United States."

"The American people deserve to know whether the CCP has exploited America’s tax-exempt sector to advance its agenda," Smith said. "The Ways and Means Committee is acting on two fronts: exposing the networks that exploit our tax laws and advancing legislation to close those loopholes for good."

Singham network faces broader federal scrutiny

The subpoenas represent the latest government scrutiny of Singham’s financial network.

On June 29, Fox News Digital reported that a federal grand jury in Manhattan was investigating alleged financial crimes involving Singham and organizations he funded. The investigation, launched by U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York, is examining possible wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering and other financial crimes, according to sources familiar with the matter.

No charges have been announced.

Fox News Digital’s five-part investigation documented $278 million flowing from Singham through a Goldman Sachs donor-advised fund and two now-defunct shell companies to six core U.S. nonprofits, including the three organizations now facing congressional subpoenas.

The investigation mapped 223 transactions totaling $591 million as money moved through successive layers of a network spanning 67 core organizations across five continents. Those organizations partnered with hundreds of additional groups, producing a wider network estimated to encompass roughly 2,000 nonprofits, activist groups, think tanks and media organizations worldwide.

Organizations within the wider network have appeared across a range of activist campaigns, including anti-Israel demonstrations, pro-Cuba actions, opposition to immigration enforcement and protests targeting artificial intelligence and data center development.

WATCH: People's Forum leaders walk away when questioned about funding protests