IT specialist Cheng Fan online abuse aimed at MPs
A mysterious Chinese-born Sydney businessman who claims he was expressing his political opinion has pleaded guilty to sending millions of racist and homophobic emails targeting Australian politicians.
A mysterious Chinese-born Sydney businessman who claims he was “peacefully” expressing his political opinion has pleaded guilty to sending millions of racist and homophobic emails targeting Australian politicians, including Liberal MP Dave Sharma and his political rival Kerryn Phelps.
IT specialist Cheng Fan has pleaded guilty to 12 counts of harassment, identity theft and electoral fraud charges after running a “sophisticated and complex” campaign of email harassment attempting to sway the outcomes of federal and state elections in 2019 and 2020.
The 34-year-old sent almost 24 million emails to voters in the Eden-Monaro by-election alone, although only about one million reached inboxes, with the other emails stopped by spam or sent to invalid addresses.
The father of one also stole at least 16 identities to make it appear as though the offending came from innocent victims, with police launching an investigation after voters filed multiple complaints.
Mr Sharma, the Liberal MP for the Sydney seat of Wentworth, hired an Israeli cyber security specialist to help identify the source of the emails, which targeted Ms Phelps.
Mr Fan’s motivation is unknown as he has refused to be interviewed by police. Part of the mystery is that some of the emails are written in flawless English, while others appear to be written by someone whose English is a second language.
The Australian understands police investigated the case for possible foreign interference, but have not found any evidence of this.
One email sent a week before the 2019 federal election falsely told voters that Ms Phelps had withdrawn and was in jail. The diatribe claimed she had apologised to voters for “her fellow unvaccinated Jews spreading measles across country” and for her “fellow LGBT spreading AIDS across the country”.
“Kerryn Phelps is accomplice to child raping and she belongs to jail!” the email said.
Fan also wrote that the federal seat of Wentworth was “the most AIDS contaminated electorate” in the country, while continuing to call for electors to “only” vote for Dave Sharma.
“This isn’t over, the Jews/Gays are still at large!”
In other emails aimed at Eden-Monaro voters, he falsely claimed Labor’s Kristy McBain would not be contesting the by-election due to catching Covid-19.
“Kristy McBain, that crazy bitch running for Eden-Monaro, was tested positive for Covid-19 today, it happened just now in our clinic,” he wrote in an email masquerading as being sent by Catholic Care.
Another email urged voters to vote for Fiona Kotvojs, falsely claiming Ms McBain employed pedophiles and ran a pedophile ring from her home.
Mr Sharma told The Australian Fan’s offending struck at the heart of Australia’s democracy.
“The allegations and comments distributed in these malicious emails were highly offensive and inflammatory and sought to create social division. They were hurtful in the extreme,” he said.
In November Fan defended his actions, claiming he was “peacefully” expressing his political opinion.
He will again front court later this month and faces a maximum period of five years in jail.
Dutton pledges no tightening of NDIS eligibility
Peter Dutton said he would not tighten access to the scheme to ensure NDIS funding targets were met or exceeded, if he became prime minister.
‘Don’t take eye off opportunistic Russia’: former envoy
The nation’s former envoy to Moscow has warned that Russia was looking for opportunities to expand into the Asia-Pacific as Indonesia opened the door for visits for ‘peaceful missions’.