Eunice Lam and Stacy Shi
About 60 percent of Next Digital founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying’s HK$1.6 billion capital came from overseas while bank records showed he transferred HK$1.75 million to former US deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz and HK$3.5 million to retired cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, the court heard yesterday.
On the ninth day of Lai’s trial at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court, the prosecution read out the written testimony of senior police inspector Hung Lai-fan, who headed the financial investigation.
Hung’s 36-page testimony said police obtained the monthly bank statements and transaction records of the people and companies involved in the case.
The investigation covered persons and companies, including Lai, his assistant Mark Simon, Chan Tsz-wah, Andy Li Yu-hin, Finn Lau Cho-dik, former Apple Daily publisher Cheung Kim-hung, associate publisher Chan Pui-man, chief editor Law Wai-kwong, executive editor-in-chief Lam Man-chung, former editor-in-chief of the English news section Fung Wai-kong and ex-editorial writer Yeung Ching-kee, as well as Lai’s companies Apple Daily, Apple Daily Printing and AD Internet.
The investigation found Lai transferred a total of HK$93 million to the pro-democracy camp via Simon between 2013 and 2020. Lai also instructed Simon to donate US$25,000 (HK$195,000) to the human rights advocacy group Hong Kong Watch.
In July 2013, Lai transferred HK$587,000 to Wolfowitz for “unknown reasons” and from 2014 to 2019 made five more transactions totaling HK$1.17 million to Wolfowitz.
Lai gave HK$3.5 million to Zen in two transactions in February and December 2017.
He transferred HK$150,000 to Chan Tsz-wah, a former member of the pro-independence group Fight For Freedom, Stand With Hong Kong.
Apart from two local personal bank accounts, the 76-year-old also controlled the bank accounts of nine other companies.
Lai’s capital flows showed that 60 percent of his capital, totaling HK$1.6 billion, came from overseas. His accounts received HK$2.945 billion in deposits from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, US and Canada.
Police found 34 transactions and 26 withdrawals from bank statements of Andy Li’s bank accounts.
Between June 28, 2019, and November 21, 2019, Li’s Standard Chartered personal account received four huge transactions, including HK$6.15 million raised in the first crowdfunding action in June 2019 via US-based Stripe Payments E Ltd, and 300,000 (HK$2.98 million) from a British account held by ex-Apple Daily column writer Jack Hazlewood, as well as HK$500,000 from Simon.
Li paid a total of HK$9.8 million to different overseas media outlets as publication fee for SWHK’s international propaganda campaign.
Lai’s Canada-based company LAIS Hotel Property had prepaid part of the publication fee for SWHK’s international propaganda campaign, for which police found the receipts at Li’s residence.
In August 2019, LAIS’s bank account transferred HK$1.4 million to Nikkei China (Hong Kong), and Li transferred the same sum to LAIS three days later. LAIS also transferred 80,000 to the British newspaper The Guardian and US$80,000 to US-based The Washington Post.
Between September 2019 and October 2020, LAIS transferred a total of HK$20 million to “beneficiaries with political backgrounds,” including HK$8 million to the Civic Party, HK$5 million to the Democratic Party, HK$1 million to the Labour Party, HK$930,000 to the League of Social Democrats, HK$3.64 million to Andy Li, and HK$379,000 to former lawmaker Au Nok-hin.
The prosecution also played a video-recorded police interview with Lai from September 1, 2020. In it officers displayed various news articles from Apple Daily and The Washington Post, with some having “Lai Chee-ying” or “Jimmy Lai” as the author.
Lai admitted both names referred to him. But said “I have no additional comments” and “I don’t know” when he was asked several times the reason for writing and publishing the articles.
The case is adjourned to next Tuesday, pending a decision on whether the prosecution’s expert witness Wang Guiguo, a former professor of the City University of Hong Kong’s School of Law, can be presented to the court.
The post Lai ‘transferred’ $1.75m to former US deputy defense chief appeared first on Hong Kong News Hub.
from
https://hongkongnewshk.com/lai-transferred-1-75m-to-former-us-deputy-defense-chief/
No comments:
Post a Comment