• Researcher identifies “network of fake consulting and headhunting firms”
• Chinese embassy says Beijing respects data privacy and security
• Firms list addresses that are empty lots and shell companies

A network of companies operated by a secretive Chinese tech firm has been trying to recruit recently laid-off U.S. government workers, according to job ads and a researcher who uncovered the campaign.

Max Lesser, a senior analyst on emerging threats with the Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said some companies placing recruitment ads were “part of a broader network of fake consulting and headhunting firms targeting former government employees and AI researchers.”

Little information is publicly available on the four consultancies and recruitment companies allegedly involved in the network, which in some cases shared overlapping websites, were hosted on the same server, or had other digital links, according to Reuters’ reporting and Lesser’s research.

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The network appeared to be a prime example of how foreign-linked entities are trying to gather intelligence from staff fired or forced into retirement by President Donald Trump and billionaire tech tycoon Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Once employed by the network, federal employees could then be asked to share increasingly sensitive information about government operations, or recommend additional people who might be targeted for willing or unwitting participation, the analysts said.

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One of the companies in the network, RiverMerge Strategies, bills itself on its website as a “professional geopolitical risk consulting company” and posted two since-deleted job listings on its since-removed LinkedIn page in mid-February.

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The U.S. number for RiverMerge Strategies listed on the company’s home page is no longer in service. A separate Chinese phone number, until recently listed on the website’s contact page, is the same number listed by Shenzhen Si Xun Software Co., Ltd, an information technology company focused on online retail, commercial automation and catering, according to a Google translation of the company’s website.

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