I think it became politics when he became an agent of a foreign government.

Well you can go to jail for selling corporate private data to foreign governments too. There were some cases of nationals from China doing this.

I thought the same thing as well but apparently the law is broader than just direct interactions with government.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Agents_Registration_Ac...

There are even espionage laws.

You need such laws to be a good place of business.

How is this outside of politics? He was dealing with the royal family.