The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control has issued a federal administrative subpoena to Twitch streamer Hasan Piker and CodePink co-founder Susan Medea Benjamin, opening a formal investigation into whether their March trip to Cuba violated U.S. sanctions law. Republican lawmakers from both chambers are now pushing the administration to follow the evidence wherever it leads, including into a sprawling network of nonprofits bankrolled by a Shanghai-based American tech tycoon.
The subpoena, first reported by Fox News Digital, seeks financial, logistical, and communications records surrounding the Cuba trips. Treasury is issuing what it calls Requests for Information, RFIs, to build a paper trail around who paid for what, who coordinated with whom, and whether any of it ran afoul of the longstanding U.S. embargo on Cuba's communist regime.
Separately, the National Jewish Advocacy Center has asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Piker should be required to register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. That request landed last Thursday. The Justice Department has not publicly responded.
Rep. Darrell Issa of California framed the investigation as long overdue. In a statement to Fox News Digital, Issa tied the inquiry to a broader pattern of foreign-funded left-wing activism he wants Congress to examine.
"It's no mystery why the man who said America deserved 9-11 has rocketed to stardom as the voice of the Democrat left, and openly discussed the money and strategy that makes up the progressive protest industrial complex. There's no way Congress will look away from what we're learning about financing from Neville Singham or a scandal that's now hiding in plain sight."
Sen. Rick Scott of Florida was more direct. In a post on X, Scott described the trip in blunt terms.
"Good. Hasan Piker and Code Pink went to Cuba, stayed in five star hotels, cozied up with thugs in the communist regime, and completely IGNORED the innocent political prisoners being starved and tortured. They should be thoroughly investigated and held accountable for ANY laws broken in doing so."
Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, a Florida Republican whose parents were exiled from Cuba, questioned why activists operating on behalf of foreign governments have avoided FARA registration for so long. "How they're not registered under FARA is hard to understand because they're very consistent," Díaz-Balart told Fox News Digital. "I mean, let's at least give them credit for that."
Díaz-Balart went further, connecting the organizations to broader anti-American influence operations. He said it "should be no surprise that folks associated with the Communist Party of China or, frankly, other anti-American groups, would be funding these groups in the United States," adding that their "sole role is pretty evident, to protect, defend and support anti-Americans. Whether it is terrorist groups or terrorist regimes like the one in Iran or the one in Cuba."
The question of Americans acting as unregistered agents of foreign powers is not new, but the scale of the financial network under scrutiny here adds a different dimension.
At the center of the investigation sits Neville Roy Singham, an American-born tech tycoon now based in Shanghai. A Fox News Digital investigation found that Singham has funneled $285 million into six organizations: $22.44 million to the People's Forum, a New York City hub for communist organizing; $1.33 million to CodePink; $68.7 million to Justice and Education Fund Inc., a nonprofit that channels money to anonymous projects overseas; $1.098 million to BreakThrough BT Media, described as a propaganda arm; and $16.76 million to Tricontinental Ltd., a pro-communist think tank.
CodePink, co-founded by Singham's wife, sponsored the March trip to Cuba. The People's Forum, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and the ANSWER Coalition share office space and leadership, forming what investigators appear to view as an interlocking network of organizations funded by a single benefactor with deep ties to China.
That network has drawn increasing scrutiny from lawmakers who see a pattern: foreign money flowing through nominally American nonprofits to organize protests, shape messaging, and provide material support to regimes hostile to the United States. The exposure of Singham's role as the financial engine behind this network has only sharpened congressional interest.
Piker, who Fox News Digital describes as a "Marxist political influencer," addressed the subpoena during a livestream on Monday. His strategy appeared to be deflection, pointing investigators away from himself and toward Singham.
"I think that ultimately the target is probably Singham and his operation from PSL to ANSWER Coalition to CodePink, like anything that he has ever financed. Not sure how much money he has now, but he's been a funding vehicle for a lot of political movements in the country, like a lot of activism, and they hate that s***, so they're trying to jam them up."
The New York Post reported that Piker appeared shaken during the stream, telling viewers, "This is not great. I mean it's bulls***, but still not great that they're after your boy. They're up my a**." He added: "I can't believe I'm saying that. But I'm about to be seemingly made an example of."
Fox News Digital reached out to both Piker and Benjamin for comment but reported receiving no response from either.
The investigation extends beyond Piker and Benjamin. Fox News reported that the broader probe involves as many as 40 American citizens suspected of supporting foreign communist regimes through the nonprofit network. The March trip itself, dubbed the "Nuestra América Convoy", reportedly included approximately 650 delegates from 33 countries and 120 organizations. Investigators are examining whether participants stayed at U.S.-sanctioned hotels in Havana.
Rep. Delia C. Ramirez, a Democrat from Illinois, posted on X that the investigation amounted to political persecution. "The Trump administration is branding dissenters as 'domestic terrorists', 'communists', 'Marxists' in order justify the targeting, persecution, and violation of their rights," she wrote. "But this isn't the 1950's and we won't fall for 'Red Scare' tactics."
That framing, casting a sanctions enforcement action as McCarthyism, is a familiar move. But it sidesteps the central question: did American citizens violate federal law by providing material support or financial benefit to a sanctioned regime? OFAC subpoenas are not opinion polls. They are legal instruments backed by statute.
Meanwhile, Breitbart reported that Piker lashed out at mainstream Democrats, including Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton, for failing to come to his defense, deriding what he called "Blue MAGA." The silence from Democratic leadership is worth noting. When an activist faces a federal probe for conduct that may have violated sanctions on a communist dictatorship, the party's leading figures apparently have nothing to say.
Rep. Randy Fine, a Florida Republican, offered a broader observation about what cases like this reveal about the modern Democratic Party. "The parties had different views about how to make America great, but both parties wanted to make America great," Fine said. "Democrats, 35 years ago, loved America. They just wanted to get there differently than Republicans did." He added: "Times are changing. When I look across the aisle, I see people who I serve with who are in Congress to destroy the country."
The case also touches Rep. Ilhan Omar's family. Her daughter, Isra Hirsi, participated in the March trip to Cuba. Officials from Omar's office stated that Hirsi paid for the trip herself and did not stay at a five-star hotel with other activists, a claim that fits a broader pattern of Democratic figures maintaining proximity to socialist and authoritarian-linked organizers while insisting the connections are incidental.
Several key questions remain open. Treasury has not issued a public statement explaining the scope or rationale of its investigation. The Justice Department has not responded to the FARA referral. No specific charges have been filed. And the precise conduct under investigation, beyond the trip itself and potential sanctions violations, has not been detailed publicly.
Piker has not, through counsel or otherwise, made a formal public response to the subpoena. Benjamin has been similarly silent.
The history of federal investigations touching on political actors is long and often messy. But the financial trail here is unusually concrete: $285 million from a single Shanghai-based benefactor, routed through a half-dozen organizations that share leadership, office space, and an open commitment to communist ideology. That is not a political disagreement. It is a compliance question, and now, apparently, an enforcement one.
When a streamer who once said America deserved 9/11 takes a trip to Cuba organized by a group bankrolled from Shanghai, and then a federal subpoena lands on his desk, the question isn't whether this is a "Red Scare." The question is whether anyone was bothering to enforce the law before now.
