A Fairfax Media-Four Corners investigation has discovered that the classified Australian documents detail activities of Chinese intelligence services. Precisely how they came to be in the apartment remains the subject of a law enforcement investigation. Sheri Yan and husband Roger Uren Credit:Black Tie Magazine Mr Uren is suspected of having removed them from his former employer, the Office of National Assessments, prior to his departure from the agency in August 2001. Mr Uren was the Assistant Secretary responsible for the Asia section of the ONA, the agency which briefs the Prime Minister on sensitive intelligence matters. Mr Uren was once tipped to be Kevin Rudd's choice for ambassador to Beijing. The raid was launched in October 2015 after ASIO gathered information suggesting Ms Yan may be connected to Chinese Communist Party intelligence services. It was timed to coincide with the FBI's arrest of Ms Yan in New York for bribing a senior United Nations official. She was jailed last year for corruption after pleading guilty to bribery charges.

Ms Yan, 58, has deep connections to Australian political, business and foreign affairs figures, including senior ex-Labor and Liberal politicians. The daughter of a celebrated Chinese artist, Ms Yan is also known to have impeccable Communist Party connections. Sheri Yan was sent to jail for bribing the former president of the United Nations General Assembly, John Ashe. Credit:Black Tie Magazine The ASIO operation raises the prospect that Australia has been the target of a Chinese intelligence operation, along with figures inside the United Nations. The revelations are part of a series of investigative reports by Fairfax Media and Four Corners into the Chinese Communist Party's efforts to infiltrate Australian institutions and cultivate links to political figures. It comes as the United States grapples with revelations about the extent of Russian meddling in its political system.

Corrupting the United Nations Ms Yan's US charges related to bribes paid to United Nations General Assembly president John Ashe to carry out certain tasks for wealthy Chinese businessmen. One of Ms Yan's charges involves a $200,000 payment to get Mr Ashe to speak at an international symposium held at a Guangdong resort owned by an Australian-Chinese billionaire. The billionaire has close political connections in Australia of his own but has never been charged with any offence. Ms Yan was jailed last year for 20 months. Questioned about the raid, Mr Uren confirmed that ASIO was investigating allegations that Sheri Yan worked with Chinese intelligence agencies. He described the allegations as "pure fantasy." "It reflects the psychosis of the people making the allegations," he said.

Mr Uren blamed the US for the ASIO raid, saying information about Ms Yan was likely to have come from the FBI. "It's US prejudice that all Chinese are spies," he said. Government sources dismissed the comments of Mr Uren, who after leaving the ONA took up a senior role with the Hong Kong listed Phoenix Television, one of the few privately owned broadcasters to be licensed by the Chinese government. Mr Uren is suspected of removing the classified documents from the ONA when he left the agency in 2001. Removing classified intelligence files from a secure environment is a criminal offence and ASIO has referred the matter to the Australian Federal Police's special operations taskforce, which handles the policing agency's most sensitive work.

Ms Yan and Mr Uren were previously regulars at Australian embassy events in Beijing. Ms Yan was once also paid to act as a lobbyist by the ABC in her native China when the public broadcaster made an ultimately futile effort to secure local broadcasting rights for its overseas television channel Australia Network. She used her high-level connections in Australia and China to act as a go-between. Her office and online business profiles were plastered with photographs such as an encounter with former Labor leader Bob Hawke and billionaire Frank Lowy. "You can trust her," reads a glowing endorsement from Greg Rudd, brother of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, which is posted on Ms Yan's LinkedIn page. "She's well connected in all jurisdictions and understands what works and what doesn't work. Most important she is a woman of high morals and principle ... and is the queen of entertaining and hosting. Sheri is always worth talking to."

John Ashe was elected to a one-year term as president of the United Nations General Assembly beginning in 2013, about the same time Ms Yan is accused of making monthly payments of $20,000 to him under the guise of a non-governmental organisation she headed, known as the "Global Sustainability Foundation". He died in a weightlifting accident while awaiting trial and shortly after Ms Yan was sentenced to prison for bribing him. Nick McKenzie, Daniel Flitton, Chris Uhlmann, Richard Baker