Manhattan Activist Group Faces Congressional Subpoena Over Financial Ties

A Manhattan-based activist organization, The People’s Forum, has been issued a subpoena by the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee as part of an ongoing federal investigation. The July 21 order, directed at the group’s executive director, Manolo De Los Santos, demands the production of internal records, including donor information, grant recipient details, and communications with foreign entities.

The committee’s inquiry is centered on the organization’s financial connections to Neville Roy Singham, a U.S.-born tech mogul based in China. Committee Chair Rep. Jason Smith, a Missouri Republican, stated that the investigation aims to determine whether the group’s tax-exempt status has been utilized to facilitate foreign influence operations within the United States. The committee has previously requested similar documentation from the organization in September 2025 and May 2026, but those requests were met with objections from the group’s legal counsel.

In a letter to the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, which is representing The People’s Forum, Rep. Smith characterized the group’s prior resistance as meritless and asserted that the subpoena is necessary to evaluate if current legal standards regarding tax-exempt entities sufficiently address foreign control. The committee has pointed to reports suggesting that millions of dollars from a fund associated with Singham were directed to the organization between 2017 and 2022.

De Los Santos has publicly rejected the committee’s claims, describing the subpoena as a politically motivated effort to suppress dissent. He characterized the investigation as a "wholesale political attack on free speech" and compared the committee’s tactics to historical political inquiries. Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, an attorney with the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, echoed these concerns, stating that the inquiry appears to target specific viewpoints held by the organization.

The People’s Forum, which frequently hosts workshops, film screenings, and protests regarding social justice issues, has previously defended its receipt of funding from Singham. This development marks another instance of a New York City-based nonprofit facing scrutiny from a congressional committee; the House Committee on Homeland Security initiated a similar investigation into the Chinese-American Planning Council last year.

As of late July, the legal team for The People’s Forum has not detailed its specific strategy for responding to the compulsory process, leaving the future of the document production in question.