Exclusive | Coronavirus: Hong Kong hedge fund manager who ‘wiped licked fingers on MTR handrail’ in viral video incurs internet’s wrath
- Joel Werner, chief investment officer at Solitude Capital Management, releases formal apology to the public, saying he filmed it as a parody to show others the dangers of fake news
- The Hong Kong resident says there is a second clip showing him disinfecting the handrail, and he called police to explain but they ‘could not care less’
A Hong Kong-based hedge fund manager has claimed a viral video showing him licking his fingers and wiping them onto a train’s handrail was an attempt at parody meant to educate his friends about the ease of spreading fake news amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Instead, the experiment misfired badly, attracting the full wrath of social media on Wednesday, as online users condemned him for irresponsible behaviour. The video was shared tens of thousands of times on Facebook and forwarded via private WhatsApp groups.
Speaking to the Post, Joel Werner, chief investment officer at Solitude Capital Management, an Asia-focused hedge fund based in Hong Kong, admitted it was him in the video, but insisted he did not actually put his fingers in his mouth and that there was a second video which showed him disinfecting the handrail. The Post has seen both videos.
“I’m terrified. It’s been spread all over,” the 43-year-old Hong Kong resident said of the video. “I manage other people’s money. How embarrassing is this?”
As the angry comments mounted on Facebook, the MTR Corporation waded into the controversy – first reprimanding Werner’s conduct, then filing a police report.
Werner said he decided to make the video during his lunch break after seeing a clip with simplified Chinese script denouncing a man that it claimed was an American soldier spreading the virus on a subway car in Wuhan, piggybacking off a popular conspiracy theory.
