Senator Ted Cruz is pressing forward with legislation that would strip tax-exempt status from nonprofits that fund political violence, as the Justice Department launches a formal investigation into the financial network of tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has authorized U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton to examine the financial workings of a nonprofit constellation that Cruz and fellow Republicans argue has operated under the cover of tax-exempt law to fund disruptive activity across the country.
The Bill and What It Would Change
Cruz introduced the Stop Proxy Organizations Nurturing Subversive Operations and Riots Act — the SPONSOR Act — in March. The legislation targets a specific mechanism in the nonprofit sector: fiscal sponsorship, an arrangement in which a recognized 501(c)(3) acts as a financial conduit for affiliated projects, allowing those projects to receive tax-deductible donations without obtaining their own nonprofit status. Critics of the practice argue it creates a layer of separation between funders and ground-level activity, complicating oversight by law enforcement and tax authorities.
Under the SPONSOR Act, 501(c)(3) organizations would become criminally and civilly liable for legal violations committed by the groups they sponsor. Cruz, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights, framed the measure as closing loopholes in the Internal Revenue Code that allow radical actors to operate with relative impunity. The bill is co-sponsored by Senator Ted Budd of North Carolina, and a House companion version was introduced by Representative Nathaniel Moran of Texas.
The Singham Network: Donor-Advised Funds and Fiscal Chains
The DOJ probe centers on Singham, a U.S. citizen who now lives in Shanghai. According to a Fox News Digital investigation cited by Cruz's office, Singham has routed $278 million into a broad network of nonprofits since 2017, partly through Goldman Sachs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund For Wealth Management Inc. — a donor-advised fund. Among the disclosed flows, $22.44 million passed to The People's Forum Inc., a 501(c)(3) based in Manhattan that serves as a hub for several affiliated organizations.
The People's Forum lists Venceremos Brigade — an organization with longstanding ties to Cuban government officials — as a fiscally-sponsored project. ICE Out of New York, which coordinates protests against federal immigration operations, also hosts events at The People's Forum. Singham's wife, Jodie Evans, co-founded CodePink, a 501(c)(3) that Senator Jim Banks of Indiana said has directly confronted him on Capitol Hill. Fox News Digital has identified direct funding from Singham to CodePink.
Congressional Pressure Builds
Banks went further than most of his colleagues, calling Singham a "traitor" with loyalties to the Chinese Communist Party. The framing reflects a broader Republican effort to characterize Singham's philanthropic activity not merely as political opposition but as a foreign-influence operation dressed in nonprofit garb.
Cruz argues the existing regulatory architecture is inadequate: absent changes to the Internal Revenue Code, sponsored entities can shield themselves from scrutiny by staying beneath the detection threshold of both tax authorities and law enforcement. The DOJ investigation, if it follows the financial flows Cruz's legislation is designed to expose, will test whether the existing legal framework is already sufficient — or whether Congress needs to act to give prosecutors more traction.