Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, former company executive found guilty of fraud in office lease case
- Lai, 74, was accused of covering up operations of Dico Consultants at Apple Daily’s headquarters for two decades in breach of land lease conditions
- Judge rules that Lai had a duty to ensure all associate or subsidiary companies running on Apple Daily grounds complied with landlord’s requirements
Jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying is set to spend more time behind bars after he was found guilty of defrauding a government-owned enterprise over the unauthorised operation of a consultancy firm at the offices of his now-defunct Apple Daily tabloid-style newspaper.
A District Court judge on Tuesday convicted Lai and a former Next Digital executive of fraud after finding the pair’s “deliberate” concealment of the private firm went beyond what would typically be a civil breach of contract and deserved criminal punishment.
Lai, 74, stood trial earlier this year on two counts of fraud after being accused of covering up the operations of Dico Consultants at the paper’s Tseung Kwan O headquarters for more than two decades in breach of its land lease conditions.
Next Digital’s former chief administrative officer Wong Wai-keung, 60, faced one count of the offence for his alleged role in the matter since 2016.
The group’s then chief financial officer and chief operating officer Royston Chow Tat-kuen, who was previously a defendant in the case, turned against his former boss and colleague in the witness box after prosecutors agreed to drop the charge against the 64-year-old on condition he help in the pair’s prosecution.
