sydney chinese spies allegedly gave a wellconnected australian businessman cashfilled envelopes in exchange for handwritten reports about lithium mining and the aukus security pact a sydney court was told mondayaustralian police allege that alexander csergo sold information to two chinese spies known as ken and evelyn while he worked in shanghai as a marketing executive the 55yearold who has spent more than two decades working in china was arrested in sydney on friday and has been charged with one count of reckless foreign interferencea government lawyer told the court that csergo an australian national had travelled home with a shopping list of spying priorities drawn up for him by the chinese agents he did this for cash that was given to him prosecutor connor mccraith told the court the court was told the chinese spies were eager for information on lithium mining iron ore production and the aukus alliance a western security pact that beijing views with suspicioncsergo moved to china around 2002 working for a series of multinational firms in advertising marketing communications and data analytics csergo had first been approached by chinese intelligence agents in 2021 he attended facetoface meetings at various cafes in shanghai magistrate michael barko csergo was a sophisticated operator who appeared to be well connected in the upper echelons of shanghais business community barko added