Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai transferred one of his private companies to an activist engaged in international lobbying during the 2019 protests as “a reward for his service,” a prosecution witness has said in the mogul’s national security trial.
Royston Chow, a former executive of Apple Daily’s parent company Next Digital, began his testimony on Tuesday. He was arrested alongside Lai on suspicion of conspiring to collude with foreign powers in June 2021, but was granted immunity by the prosecution in February 2022 in exchange for testifying against the tycoon in the present trial and a separate fraud case.
Wearing a navy suit, Chow told the court that he signed a document to transfer the ownership of Lacock Inc. to paralegal Chan Tsz-wah in December 2019, when the city was embroiled in protests and unrest.
Chan, who was charged alongside Lai, was also a prosecution witness in the mogul’s national security trial. He pleaded guilty in August 2021 to one count of conspiring to collude with foreign forces.
Lacock Inc, an off-shore company registered in the British Virgin Islands, was “owned 100 per cent” by Lai, Chow continued. The witness added that he was also the firm’s director.
Chow said he was instructed by Mark Simon, Lai’s right-hand man, to transfer the company during a September 2019 meeting at Next Digital’s headquarters in Tseung Kwan O. But he said he had no knowledge of Chan’s identity.
“Mark Simon came to my office and explained that Chan Tsz-wah helped Mr Lai with some matters, therefore Mr Lai gave him the company as a reward for his service. I didn’t ask any further than that,” the witness said in Cantonese on the 71st day of the trial.
The court previously heard that Chan connected Lai with the “Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong” (SWHK) advocacy group in June 2019 when SWHK needed a loan for a campaign to garner international support for the protests at that time.
Lai, the 76-year-old founder of Next Digital and Apple Daily, is standing trial on two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under a Beijing-imposed national security law and a third count of conspiring to publish “seditious” materials. He has pleaded not guilty to all three charges.
Prosecutors allege Lai, through Chan as a middleman, financed and instructed SWHK in requesting international sanctions against Hong Kong and China.
Ex-employee
The court heard on Tuesday that Chow joined Next Digital in 1993 as a financial controller and later became the media conglomerate’s chief operating officer.
He told the trial that he was also the Next Digital’s chief financial officer between 2016 and 2020, and he was responsible for overseeing departments including finance, advertising and logistics.
He added that he was the shareholder and director of several of Lai’s private non-listed companies. They included DICO Consultants Limited (DICO) and Lais Hotel Properties Limited, two companies that the prosecution said funded SWHK’s international lobbying campaign.
“Mr Lai has many smaller companies,” Chow said. “Many of them I could no longer recall.”
The prosecution displayed email correspondence between Chow, Simon, and several individuals who Chow said were DICO’s employees. The correspondence suggested the transfers of Lacock Inc. and its associated HSBC account to Chan were completed in January 2020.
‘Frightened’
Before Chow addressed the court Tuesday, Chan completed his testimony after 13 days on the witness stand. The paralegal recalled a meeting with Lai in which he told the tycoon he was “frightened and wished to step back” in June 2020, when the Beijing-imposed security law came into force.
But he said he was “convinced” by Lai during the meeting and continued international lobbying, adding that he joined the “US front,” a division of SWHK that pushed for US sanction acts on Hong Kong and China, shortly afterwards.
Chan said, however, he could not recall any videos or articles published after the security law was enacted in which Lai called for sanctions on Hong Kong.
The trial resumes on Wednesday with Chow expected to continue his testimony.
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