Pan-democrat lawmakers could face probe over donations from media mogul Jimmy Lai
Pro-Beijing group calls on Legco to investigate millions of dollars given to five lawmakers
Five pro-democracy lawmakers accused of secretly accepting millions of dollars in donations from media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying may face official investigations.
This follows leaks of about 900 confidential files concerning business and personal affairs of the Apple Daily founder as well as his political donations. The leak has been slammed by pan-democrats as a smear campaign.
A Beijing-loyalist group yesterday asked Legco's committee on members' interests to look into the matter.
A member of a "lawmaker integrity" concern group said it had filed a report to the Inland Revenue Department and would hand another to the Independent Commission Against Corruption over donations of more than HK$10 million that Lai allegedly paid to pan-democratic parties and lawmakers.
"An inquiry by the Legco committee, we believe, could help clarify whether the lawmakers' non-disclosure constituted any conflict of interests," said Wong Kwok-kin, of the Federation of Trade Unions.
Legco rules require lawmakers to disclose "material benefits" from a single source where the total value exceeds 5 per cent of their annual remuneration, or one-off benefits over HK$10,000. As there is no political party law, there are no rules covering donations to groups.
Two of the lawmakers - the Civic Party's Claudia Mo Man-ching and the Democratic Party's James To Kun-sun - rejected claims they had received donations that were made in an e-mail sent from an unknown source to media this week.