Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai’s aide acted as an intermediary for handling donations raised through a crowdfunding campaign in 2019, a pro-democracy activist has testified in a high-profile national security trial.
Andy Li continued the fourth day of his testimony at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on Monday. Li, who was charged alongside Lai over conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the national security law, has pleaded guilty and is now testifying against the media mogul.
Wearing a long-sleeved white shirt and black-rimmed glasses, Li was led into the courtroom by correctional officers. He looked briefly at the public gallery before sitting down at the witness stand.
Prosecutor Anthony Chau asked Li about a crowdfunding campaign known as “G Fry” in August 2019, the third in a series of fundraising drives aimed at supporting the protests in Hong Kong. At the time, Hong Kong was engulfed in demonstrations sparked by a controversial amendment to the city’s extradition bill, and activists hoped to raise international awareness of the movement.
Li, who was among the organisers of the crowdfunding campaign, told the court the team had decided to use the platform GoFundMe. They selected US dollars as the fundraising currency as Hong Kong dollars was not an option, and therefore required a US bank account to receive the funds.
“Ultimately, the total sum raised in the campaign was more than US$1.8 million,” Li said, speaking in Cantonese. “It was quite a lot.”
The team needed a bank account that had seen large transaction volumes before and would likely be able to receive this sum without raising suspicions of money laundering. Li said they learnt of a “rich American” who was willing to help, but the transaction was not successful and was returned to GoFundMe.
After the failed attempt, a “second rich American” stepped in. They suggested setting up a trust account called Project Hong Kong Trust to hold the crowdfunded donations and acted as an intermediary between GoFundMe and the account, Li said.
The activist said he found out later that the person involved was Simon, Lai’s aide.
While Li said that “strictly speaking” that he did not know whether the money was transferred from GoFundMe to Simon’s bank account, he said he had heard from Chan Tsz-wah that the transaction had been successful.
Chan is also a defendant in the national security case, and pleaded guilty with Li in August 2021.
‘Stand With Hong Kong’ group
Monday marked the 47th day of Lai’s national security trial, in which the media mogul faces charges of conspiring to publish seditious materials and two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces.
The first foreign collusion charge relates to Lai’s leadership of pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, which he was the founder of. Six other Apple Daily staff pleaded guilty to the same charge in November 2022. Three of them agreed to testify for the prosecution and have completed their testimony against Lai.
Li is the fourth person to testify against the mogul. The prosecution, however, did not ask Li any questions relating to Lai on Monday.
Before moving on to the G Fry crowdfunding campaign, the prosecution questioned Li about the activist group “Fight for Freedom, Stand With Hong Kong.” The group, which Li co-founded and is still active today, was borne out of efforts to publish advertisements in overseas newspapers about the Hong Kong movement in 2019.
At the time, activists bought advertisements in dozens of newspapers, including The New York Times and The Guardian. But some outlets did not accept advertisements that were anonymous, requiring them to be attached to a name or an organisation. Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong – known in short as SWHK – was then founded following a poll on messaging app Telegram on what to name the group.
The founders of the group include Finn Lau, an activist now based in the US, as well as Shirley Ho. When asked who Ho was, Li said she was an astrophysicist in the US who was with him on trips to Geneva, Switzerland and Washington in 2019. Li did not elaborate on the nature of the trips.
Two others, known by the names of Always and Madison, were also co-founders of SWHK. Li said those were just their display names and he was unsure if they were their real names.
Li said there were other co-founders but that he could not recall who they were.
Chau will continue his examination of Li on Tuesday.
When Lai’s trial began on December 18, 2023, he had already spent more than 1,000 days in custody after having had his bail revoked in December 2020. Three judges – handpicked by Hong Kong’s chief executive to hear national security cases – are presiding over Lai’s trial in the place of a jury, marking a departure from the city’s common law traditions.
Lai, 76, faces spending the rest of his life in prison if convicted.
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