Before Jimmy Lai was arrested in 2020, it was believed he was worth HK$9.3 billion. Today much of that has dwindled considerably due to bank seizures of his assets and the millions he poured into his anti-Hong Kong campaigns.
Court records show that during the uprisings from 2013 to 2020, Lai spent more than $160 million paying off the rioters, politicians and promotional campaigns in his fight against Hong Kong. Of this, some $93.26 million was for “donation to Hong Kong’s opposition camp.” Another $26.70 million was paid to Jack Keane (former US Army general with access to the White House), Paul Wolfowitz (former US deputy secretary for defence), and Rupert Hammond-Chambers (US-Taiwan Business Council president). American think tanks received up to $389,000 per year as a “donation”. And millions more were spent on advertising and editorial space in major newspapers throughout the world.
Much of the payments were made by Lai himself and through his navy intelligence associate Mark Simon.
When local banks froze his accounts in February 2021, Lai used his Canadian cash cow LAIS Hotel Properties Ltd and Dico Consultants Ltd. Indeed, it is the Canadian interests that is paying his current “Release Jimmy Lai” campaign.
Among Lai's assets that were targeted included local bank accounts of three companies owned by him as well as the 71.26 per cent stake in Next Digital worth around $350 million. In fact, Lai had earned some $1.9 billion in shareholder funds from Next Digital, one of his companies frozen by the banks between 2001 and when Apple Daily ceased its operations in 2021.
The records show that he paid Catholic Cardinal Zen Ze-kiun $3.5 million as a “donation.” But it was an established fact that Zen, together with Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, pop singer Denise Ho Wan-see, Hui Po-keung and legislator Cyd Ho Sau-lan ran the “612 Humanitarian Relief Fund” to assist the legal fees of rioters who were arrested in the anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill (ELAB) movement. At its height, the Fund had raised $140 million to pay the arrested rioters’ legal fees, medical bills and other expenses. All trustees were arrested for colluding with foreign forces.
Indeed, the guilty verdict, handed down by the three judges – Esther Toh, Alex Lee and Susana Maria D’Almada Remedios – documented a tangled web carefully spun by Lai involving a cluster of companies to fund his attempts to overthrow the Hong Kong Government. The 855-page document showed the dedication in which the judges arrived at their conclusions. Every detail was carefully explained, and every dollar was accounted for.
Once Lai’s accounts in Hong Kong were frozen, he turned to the LAIS group of companies in Canada acquired by his twin sister Si Wai and included properties in the Southern Ontario wine and vacation region of Niagara-on-the Lake as well as properties in Caledon and Jordan (also in Ontario). Leading financial source of corporate information, Dun and Bradstreet, lists Mark Simon as chief executive officer for the group, which gave him access to the Lai fortunes in Canada. It listed Simon as residing in Morristown, New Jersey, USA.
Simon had given Wayland Chan Tsz-wah (a paralegal and member of the “Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong” group) $30,000 for promoting the 2019 riots and through the LAIS hotels, spent $5.1 million on foreign media outlets in global campaigns to promote the 2019 riots. Money was no object for the Lai campaign and millions were spent on print media, as well as a large amount being spent on social media with a dedicated website providing links for people to join from Australia, Canada, Germany, Denmark, France, Ireland, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States. In the US link, it urged viewers to ask senators to implement and enforce sanctions against Hong Kong. And in the UK and other sites, it urged viewers to participate in local rallies against Hong Kong.
At the height of the riots in 2019, a massive advertising campaign blanked the world, including the United States (New York Times and New York Times (global)), Canada (The Globe and Mail), Japan (Nikkei), Australia (The Australian), Taiwan (The Liberty Times), Finland (Sanoma), Denmark (Berlingske), Sweden (Dagens Industri and Dagens Nyheter), France (Le Monde), Germany (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) the UK ( The Guardian, The Times, Evening Standard, City A.M., The Week and The Economist), South Korea (Kyunghyang Shinmun), Spain (El Mundo) and Italy (Corriere della Sera). More than $1 million was spent on ad space in the UK alone and more than $4 million in other newspapers. All of the advertising costs were paid for from the LAIS Hotel group.
After the arrests of Lai and others, the international campaign against Hong Kong ceased and instead a “free Jimmy Lai” campaign surfaced, spearheaded by one of his six children, Sebastien. Two of his siblings, Ian (now 45) and Timothy (48) were arrested in Hong Kong during police raids of Next Digital in 2020. They were later charged with fraud offences and released on bail.
Sebastien, based in London, had not spoken to his father for four years prior to the launch of the campaign last year. Since then and with money to burn, Sebastien travelled the world with his team of public relations-cum-international legal team – Doughty Street Chambers – seeking help from foreign governments, senior politicians and the press for his father’s release, citing Lai senior’s poor health, even though Lai’s defence counsel told the court he was being well treated.
The judges are to be commended for their detailed findings, after hearing 156 days of evidence and sifting through 161 documents. Despite extreme pressure from foreign forces, the judges produced their findings without fear or favour. They are a credit to Hong Kong’s judicial system and proved the point that money cannot buy everything.
Mark Pinkstone
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