An American millionaire, Neville Roy Singham has been accused of funding a financial network that pushes Chinese propaganda. Know more about him here.
A US-based millionaire, Neville Roy Singham has been accused of funding a financial network to push Chinese talking points worldwide, as per a New York Times investigation. Two years ago, an investigation was done on a news website the roots of which traced back to the millionaire. He has been accused of helping China spread their word in various countries.
Who is Neville Roy Singham?
Singham is the founder and former chairman of ThoughtWorks, an IT consulting company. Neville was born to father Archibald Wickeramaraja Singham, a Sri Lankan political scientist and historian. Singham started his firm in Chicago and moved to Shanghai, where is based now.
Neville Roy Singham’s new website in India
Neville even had a news agency in India called the NewsClick which was investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) two years ago and found that the agency received nearly Rs 38 crore in funding from abroad. Upon tracing the money trail reached the American millionaire Singham.
NYT reports have now confirmed that Singham used the news website to push Chinese propaganda. It also revealed how China has been able to protect itself from international criticism for its human rights abuses. The core strength of the network were four American non-profit groups which do not exist as legal entities but are instead tied to Singham’s network through domain registration, said NYT.
India Today reported that four non-profit organisations had no real-world footprints. “Their addresses were listed as UPS store mailboxes in Illinois, Wisconsin and New York.” If reports are to be believed the largest of the four nonprofits is run by Singham’s wife Jodie Evans.
When asked about the allegations by NYT, Singham did not offer substantive answers. “I categorically deny and repudiate any suggestion that I am a member of, work for, take orders from, or follow instructions of any political party or government or their representatives,” he wrote in an email. “I am solely guided by my beliefs, which are my long-held personal views.”
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