The Hong Kong government is seeking to confiscate HK$127 million in assets belonging to pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai following his conviction and jail term under the national security law.
Lai has been summoned to the Supreme Court on July 8 to hear the government’s request. The case will be presided over by Esther Toh, one of three judges who heard his national security trial.
In a document submitted to the High Court earlier this month, the justice secretary listed the assets to be “confiscated” from the authorities.
The list includes credit balances on bank accounts belonging to or associated with the founder of Apple Daily.
Fifteen bank accounts under Lai’s name – 10 with HSBC, two with Hang Seng Bank and three with Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank – hold over HK$32 million.
The government is also seeking to seize bank accounts belonging to 17 companies linked to Lai. It also requires Lai to divest stakes in 17 companies, some of which overlap with the 17 firms whose assets the government is seeking to seize.
Among the companies whose assets and shares the government wants to confiscate are Dico Consultants Ltd, which has over HK$404,302 in its HSBC account, and Lai’s Hotel Properties Ltd, which has over HK$3.1 billion in its four HSBC accounts.
Dico Consultants was at the center of Lai’s fraud case relating to an alleged breach of lease. Lai was accused of allowing the company to occupy parts of Apple Daily’s headquarters in Tseung Kwan O, despite the newspaper’s premises being leased for printing and publishing.
Lai was imprisoned for five years and nine months in December 2022 after being found guilty of fraud, but the sentence was overturned by the Court of Appeal in February of this year.
The government also applied to seize HK$10 million conditional release the money Lai had given in court in December 2020, before it was later denied bail and detained.
The media mogul was was sentenced to 20 years in prison in February after being found guilty of conspiracy to collaborate with foreign forces and sedition, both offenses under the Beijing-imposed national security law.
The prison term is the longest ever handed down for a national security offence. This has been said by his lawyers Lai will not appeal.
