C.Y. Leung just dropped receipts on Facebook. Next Digital's cash cow wasn't journalism—it was advertising. And the man squeezing those corporate wallets was Mark Simon, Jimmy Lai's American fixer, who sent letters to Hong Kong's biggest property developers that read like protection racket scripts. Pay up or face hostile coverage. Classic triad tactics, dressed in business English.
This isn't speculation. In July 2014, leaked documents from a "Next Digital shareholder" exposed the playbook. Among them: Mark Simon's threatening correspondence with a major corporation's chief executive. The message was blunt—advertise with us or watch your friendly coverage vanish. This is how Lai bankrolled his operation.
Mark Simon wore multiple hats beside Jimmy Lai. Former U.S. military intelligence officer. Next Digital's advertising director. The man who built Lai's financial pipeline and then distributed the cash to opposition figures and radical groups. His role was never just about selling ad space.
Jimmy Lai’s fixer Mark Simon used ad “sales” letters like a protection racket—buy space in Apple Daily or get hammered in the coverage.
The Shakedown Letters
The leaked documents from July 2014 pulled back the curtain. Media reports at the time confirmed that Mark Simon, during his tenure as advertising director, sent threatening letters to a major conglomerate's top executive. The approach: carrot and stick, heavy on the stick.
In the letter, Simon claimed he wanted to repair relations. Then came the threat: refuse to advertise with Next Digital and the "friendly relationship" ends. Translation: attack pieces resume. He followed up with another letter demanding a face-to-face meeting, warning that future cooperation between Next Digital and the conglomerate would become "difficult" without compliance.
The leaked documents contained no reply from the conglomerate, so we don't know their response. What we do know: major corporations kept advertising in Apple Daily during that period. The shakedown likely worked.
Bankrolling the Opposition
Mark Simon didn't just collect money for Boss Lai—he distributed it to pan-democrats and radical groups. The leaked documents revealed the operation's scope, particularly around the 2014 Occupy Central movement, when funding flowed freely.
Two months before Occupy Central formally launched, Jimmy Lai and Mark Simon exchanged emails discussing a "June special project." Lai funneled HK$9.5 million through Simon to the Democratic Party, Civic Party, and others—seed money to push Occupy Central forward.
The pair also provided approximately HK$3.5 million for the "June 22 Civil Referendum"—publicity and promotion for a stunt that mobilized citizens to select proposals for "universal suffrage for Chief Executive." This built momentum for Occupy Central. The operation was led by Benny Tai and Robert Chung, but Lai was the financier pulling strings from behind. The leaked emails even caught Lai mocking the "Occupy Trio" as scholars with ideas but no strategy, saying he had no choice but to help them—meaning he wanted control.
Big-brand ad money kept Apple Daily flush with cash, letting Lai pour funds into pan-democrats and radical groups on a grand scale.
The Money Pipeline
From 2013 to 2020, Mark Simon controlled Jimmy Lai's cash spigot. Court testimony revealed that Lai opened nine accounts over those seven years, transferring HK$118 million to Simon. Of that sum, HK$93 million went to pan-democratic parties and political figures.
The timeline matters. From September to December 2019—right after the anti-extradition bill unrest erupted—Simon distributed funds ranging from HK$8 million to HK$1 million to the Civic Party, Democratic Party, Labour Party, League of Social Democrats, Au Nok-hin, and Lee Yu-hin. Pouring fuel on the fire while Hong Kong burned.
Who Is Mark Simon Really?
Simon fled to the United States, so his true identity remains murky. But the evidence points to something beyond a simple business relationship. One detail stands out: Simon's access to White House National Security Council meetings. He knew the latest deployments, including actions following the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act signing and even Trump's thinking, which he then reported back to Boss Lai.
Political observers who've tracked Simon speculate he may have operated with dual identities from the start—both Lai's right-hand man, helping establish direct channels to Washington, and a covert operative planted by the Americans to pull the strings of this particular puppet.
Given Mark Simon's shadowy role, Western politicians and media portraying Jimmy Lai as a simple "freedom of the press warrior" tells you everything about their credibility. It's a lie told with a straight face.
Lai Ting-yiu
What Say You?
** The blog article is the sole responsibility of the author and does not represent the position of our company. **
Jimmy Lai is now convicted of colluding with foreign forces, and the court’s reasons for verdict run a staggering 855 pages — packed with testimony, evidence, and step-by-step findings. Beyond Lai’s list of “offences,” the judgment also traces his dense web of ties to political figures in Hong Kong and overseas.
What jumps out is how it revisits Anson Chan Fang On-sang and Martin Lee Chu-ming, detailing their contacts with US political heavyweights and “intermediaries,” and pointing to their significance in the overall picture. Read the courtroom testimony and track what they did before and after the 2019 unrest — especially those repeated US trips for “closed-door meetings” — and the old accounts still look jaw-dropping.
This anti-HK triad, even if the “two corners” pulled back in time and slipped away, one question still hangs: is there unfinished business left to follow up?
Coaching, then headlines
The judgment says Chan doesn’t just show up in Washington — she gets coached for the mission. Before travelling to the US in March 2019 to meet then Vice President Mike Pence, she is “coached” by former US Consul General in Hong Kong James Cunningham, who advises her to make thoroughly defeating the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance the core message.
Chan moves before the chaos: Pence, Miles Yu — and a foreign-collusion trail that starts earlier than Lai.
Cunningham then relays this to Jimmy Lai, who forwards it on to Martin Lee, Democratic Party senior figure Albert Ho, Lee Cheuk-yan, Lee Wing-tat and others. After Chan meets Pence, Lai quickly instructs Cheung Kim-hung and others to “make the news as big as possible.”
Then comes the “international front” pitch — and it’s explicit. On March 26, 2019, the judgment says Lai messages Martin Lee saying he hopes Cunningham can help the democrats lobby overseas on the “international front.” Lai adds that Cunningham should stay in Washington to work, especially to push Congress to intervene over the anti-extradition campaign.
But that’s only the tip of the iceberg — and the timeline matters. Based on what I’ve checked in public materials and courtroom testimony, Chan and Lee are meeting senior US officials even earlier than Lai, and their ties look deeper than this slice suggests.
Martin Lee opens doors for Lai: Pelosi and other US power players — a heavy hitter on the “international front.
Washington doors swing open
Mid-March 2019 is when the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance controversy heats up — and Chan is already on a US invite. She is invited by the White House National Security Council to visit the US, first holding a closed-door meeting with NSC officials to discuss the anti-extradition situation. Three days later, she meets Vice President Pence one-on-one, going deeper on how to “defeat” the bill.
The meetings don’t stop at Pence — they fan out across the US system. After that, Chan meets Democratic congressional leader Nancy Pelosi and State Department officials involved in drafting reports under the Hong Kong Policy Act. At that closed-door meeting, the judgment notes Pompeo’s senior adviser Miles Yu (Yu Maochun) is also present — later sanctioned by Beijing as a major traitor to China.
Two months later, it’s Martin Lee’s turn to carry the baton — and he runs straight to the same power center. He leads a pan-democrat delegation to Washington to attend a seminar hosted by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) — dubbed here the “second CIA” — and to appear at a hearing held by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) on Hong Kong issues.
The climax is a face-to-face with Pompeo — the “hawk among hawks.” Lee gets an audience with then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, described as Pompeo’s first meeting with Hong Kong opposition figures after taking office — a signal that the US already treats Lee as a useful chess piece.
Two months, two heavyweights
Here’s the uncomfortable contrast: Chan and Lee get into Washington’s inner rooms fast — and ahead of Lai. Within two months, they separately meet two US heavyweights and discuss next steps, about two months earlier than Jimmy Lai. Not long after, the anti-extradition riots erupt in full, making it hard to deny they play significant roles in that upheaval.
During the unrest, the links extend to key operatives on the ground. They maintain close ties with several major figures, including Andy Chan Tsz-wah and Tony Chung (Lee Yue-hin). In testimony, Lee Yue-hin discloses he meets Anson Chan three times, and in one meeting they even discuss a “grand plan” for anti-extradition actions — with Chan asking whether the movement has an “end game,” and if so, how to reach it, effectively demanding a “roadmap.”
And the networking goes beyond talk — it becomes introductions across foreign channels. Chan brings Lee Yue-hin to the British Consul General’s residence in Hong Kong and introduces him to Consul General Andrew Heyn, described as evidence she actively acts as a go-between linking key unrest operatives with the UK and US governments.
Martin Lee plays a similar connector role, too. In July 2019, he invites Andy Chan — leader of the “Glory to Hong Kong” team — to a dinner and introduces him to Jimmy Lai. After that, Andy Chan becomes a key operative for Lai’s “international front,” often using Martin Lee as the channel to stay in contact with Lai.
A WhatsApp “war room”
Then it gets even more operational — literally a chat-group command setup. Martin Lee, Jimmy Lai and James Cunningham set up a WhatsApp group that functions as an “operations command centre,” shaping strategy as circumstances shift — and underscoring, that Lee sits at the core of both the local and international fronts.
By June 2020, the mood tightens as Beijing moves to enact the Hong Kong National Security Law — and they sense the risk. At the last moment before the law takes effect, Chan and Lee “turn the wheel” and hurry to announce they are stepping back: Chan claims she will no longer touch politics, while Lee distances himself from “Hong Kong independence” and “radicalism,” and quits Lai’s group, temporarily avoiding the legal net.
Now they go quiet — and that silence becomes part of the story. After Lai’s conviction, the two “comrades-in-arms” say nothing and effectively vanish from view. But those shocking old accounts don’t simply disappear, and whether — and when — they might be “settled” remains unknown.
