The Hong Kong government is seeking to confiscate HK$56.5 million (US$7.2 million) from former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying’s bank accounts and all of the shares in his 17 companies after he was jailed for 20 years under the national security law, court documents show.
The secretary for justice applied to the High Court earlier this month to seize Lai’s assets linked to three conspiracies to instigate foreign sanctions and incite public hatred towards the authorities in 2019 and 2020.
The originating summons, seen by the South China Morning Post on Tuesday, said Lai controlled 20 personal and corporate bank accounts in Hong Kong, with remaining balances ranging from HK$212.32 to HK$19,810,748.05.
The justice secretary also sought to take over control of 17 companies owned by Lai by ordering the forfeiture of “all shares under the defendant’s own name or under the names of the respective shareholders”.
Those companies included Next Digital, the parent company of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, in which Lai still holds a 71.26 per cent shareholding.
The combined value of the stakes remains unclear, but the court filing said Lai’s shares in two of those firms, Comitex Holdings and Comitex Knitters, could be worth HK$71.4 million in total.
Separately, the secretary applied to confiscate Lai’s HK$10 million bond after the High Court placed him under house arrest on December 23, 2020, pending his trials.
The Court of Final Appeal revoked Lai’s bail eight days later and the 78-year-old has been incarcerated since. The money would have been returned to the accused at the end of his criminal proceedings.
The intended court order also targeted a HK$2 million fine imposed on Lai in a fraud case in which he was eventually acquitted, as well as HK$80,000 held under a British Virgin Islands-based company, which the former media boss gave to an activist as a reward for help during the 2019 anti-government protests.
A 60-minute hearing is scheduled for July 8 before Madam Justice Esther Toh Lye-ping, one of three judges who presided over Lai’s national security trial.
In February, the three-judge panel sentenced Lai to 20 years behind bars after finding him guilty of two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and a third of conspiracy to print and distribute seditious articles.
The court also fined Apple Daily, Apple Daily Printing and AD Internet more than HK$3 million each.
Lai’s lawyers indicated that they had “clear and definitive” instructions not to appeal against his conviction and sentence.
A government spokesman previously said the application was made to achieve “important objectives of preventing and suppressing acts and activities endangering national security”.
He said the court order would “cut off the funding chains” and prevent Lai’s accomplices or agents from continuing to endanger the country’s safety using his financial assets.