Mr Fergus said he was initially advised by federal authorities that the raids related to Chinese intelligence operations, but the subsequent interviews conducted with him by ASIO focused on his work for the organisation from the 1990s into the 2000s, when he conducted covert investigations to try to identify a "mole" within ASIO who had been working for the Russian spy service providing highly classified documents in return for money.
The ASIO mole was the subject of a Four Corners program, Traitor, in June 2023.
The program identified the mole as Ian George Peacock, a former World War II RAAF fighter pilot who became ASIO's supervisor of espionage in the 1970s and then volunteered to provide classified information to the Russian spy agency, the KGB.
Peacock became a so-called "precious agent" for the KGB, providing the agency with highly classified intelligence including top secret material from Australia's Five Eyes intelligence partners, the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand.
Mr Fergus was interviewed for the Four Corners story in his capacity as an international security specialist and CEO of Intelligent Risks, not as a former intelligence officer.
He told the ABC: "At this particular point in time when this ASIO mole volunteered his services and betrayed his country, he was of critical importance [to the KGB] … He was the first mole recruited in ASIO so they were deliriously happy."
On February 24 this year, more than a dozen ASIO officers accompanied by the AFP raided Mr Fergus's family home and the office of his company, Intelligent Risks, in Sydney's northern suburbs.
Mr Fergus has told the ABC the warrants for the raids appeared to relate to his work for ASIO investigating the Russian penetration, which he says was done under the authority of the then ASIO Director-General.
Mr Fergus says that during the raids he was questioned extensively about his involvement in the Four Corners program and accused of providing Peacock's name to the ABC, which both he and the ABC deny.
Peacock was identified in the Four Corners program by Canadian intelligence specialist Dan Mulvenna, who said Peacock's identity as a mole had been revealed by Russian defectors.
