FIRST ON FOX: Powerful House Ways and Means chair throws hammer down on 'foreign-aligned influence network'

Just after 1 p.m. on Friday, a black minivan pulled up to the curb on Union Square East in Lower Manhattan, and David Chung, organizing director of a national nonprofit, the People's Forum, started quickly unpacking megaphones and bright yellow pre-made protest signs, including the message, "TRUMP IS THE SYMPTOM. CAPITALISM IS THE DISEASE. SOCIALISM IS THE CURE!"

On Monday, Smith sent letters, obtained by Fox News Digital, to the three groups, raising "significant concerns" about "foreign influence or control" in the U.S. and the "financing arrangements and the structure of a foreign-aligned influence network, not protected speech or association."

Smith repeatedly describes the three groups as part of an "interconnected network of organizations," telling each nonprofit, "The Committee is considering whether legislative or regulatory reform is necessary to ensure that tax-exempt status is not used to facilitate or obscure foreign influence across an interconnected network of organizations."

While the congressional investigation isn't a direct response to the May Day protests, the deepening investigation reveals a wider concern among lawmakers and Trump administration officials in the Treasury, Justice and State departments. They tell Fox News Digital they are concerned that overseas interests are exploiting U.S. nonprofit laws to create an infrastructure and industry that asserts "foreign malign influence" in the U.S., operating through tax-exempt organizations, donor-advised funds, shell companies, fiscal sponsorships and media platforms.

The Missouri Republican lawmaker has ordered each organization to turn over internal documents related to the investigation by May 18, including communications with Singham, records of foreign-linked donations exceeding $5,000, contracts tied to fiscal sponsorship arrangements, communications with foreign principals and lists of grant recipients located outside the U.S.

At a hearing earlier this year into the role of malign foreign influence in the U.S., Smith rebuked the groups for "sowing discord" in the country.

According to the letters, Washington, D.C., attorney Andrew Herman is representing BreakThrough and Tricontinental, along with Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, a far-left 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., that is also representing the People's Forum. Herman and Verheyden-Hilliard didn't respond to requests for comment.

According to digital records, the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund shares the same address at a Florida Avenue NW townhouse that is used by the ANSWER Coalition, a self-described communist group that also operates out of the People's Forum headquarters on W. 37th Street in Midtown Manhattan. 

At the center of the congressional investigation is the influence of Singham. In 2017, Singham sold Thoughtworks, a company that he established, to a private equity firm, Apax Partners, for an estimated $785 million. He then used cash from the sale to build a network of nonprofits that promulgates anti-American Marxist ideology. A spokeswoman for Apax Partners told Fox News Digital that the firm wouldn't reveal the identities of the investors that purchased Thoughtworks.

In letters to BreakThrough News and Tricontinental, Smith said that he was investigating whether the groups are "acting as an agent of a foreign principal."

According to a Fox News Digital investigation, Singham has funneled $22.44 million to the People's Forum between 2017 and 2022 through GS Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc., a donor-advised fund affiliated with Goldman Sachs. A spokesman for Goldman Sachs told Fox News Digital that the philanthropy terminated its relationship with Singham in early 2024.

Meanwhile, the Fox News Digital investigation found that Singham pumped $16.76 million into Tricontinental Ltd., through the Goldman Sachs philanthropy fund, and he funneled $1.098 million to BreakThrough BT Media Inc. from the Goldman Sachs fund, $2.1 million from the Justice and Education Fund, another Singham-funded nonprofit, and $60,600 from the Progress Unity Fund, another organization in the wider Singham network. 

Smith focused on the People's Forum's role as a so-called "fiscal sponsor," collecting tax-deductible donations for like-minded projects, writing that the group provides "fiduciary oversight, financial management and administrative services" for affiliated entities, an arrangement he said "may allow foreign-influenced funds to flow to downstream organizations."

The committee's demands show its investigative blueprint to follow the money, map global relationships and determine whether malign interests are exploiting America's tax-exempt system to obscure foreign influence across a network, not just within one organization.

Back on the streets, Chung, the organizing director for the People's Forum, stage-managed the group's protesters as they weaved across New York City's streets, crossing over Union Square West, chanting, "One struggle, one fight!"

Fox News Digital's Michael Dorgan, Louis Casiano and Jesse Watson contributed to this report.