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Hong Kong courts
Hong KongLaw and Crime

Former Next Digital senior executive turns against ex-boss and Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai in fraud trial in exchange for personal freedom

  • Royston Chow agrees to help prosecutors secure conviction of tycoon and former colleague, in return for exemption from criminal liability
  • Chow names Lai as having the final say on mode and venue of consultancy firm operating at Apple Daily’s headquarters

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Royston Chow (left) at West Kowloon Court in December 2020. Photo: Sam Tsang
Brian Wong
A former senior executive of the media group founded by jailed Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying has agreed to help prosecutors secure the mogul’s conviction in a fraud trial in exchange for his own personal freedom.
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Next Digital’s then chief financial officer and chief operating officer Royston Chow Tat-kuen turned against his former boss and colleague in the witness box on Monday after prosecutors let him off the hook on the condition that he assist in the pair’s prosecution.

Chow, 64, initially faced a joint charge of fraud alongside Lai, 74, and Next Digital’s former chief administrative officer Wong Wai-keung 60, when the trio first appeared in court in December 2020.

Staff prepare for the last issue of Apple Daily at the newspaper’s headquarters in Tseung Kwan O in June 2021. Photo: Dickson Lee
Staff prepare for the last issue of Apple Daily at the newspaper’s headquarters in Tseung Kwan O in June 2021. Photo: Dickson Lee
Lai is currently serving a 20-month jail sentence for his roles in four unauthorised assemblies, three of which stemmed from the 2019 social unrest.

Before the District Court trial opened earlier this month, prosecutors applied to handle Chow’s case separately without giving an explanation in open court, while slapping an extra count of the same offence against the media mogul.

Director of Public Prosecutions Maggie Yang Mei-kei on Monday submitted a certificate to the court stating her team would exempt Chow from criminal liability if he offered “detailed and truthful” evidence on the stand.

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While fraud is not a crime under the Beijing-imposed national security law, prosecutors have asked that their complaint be heard by an arbiter hand-picked by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor for national security cases, who they said could better foresee any potential challenges to the prosecution’s case.

Lai and Wong allegedly concealed the operation of a consultancy firm at Apple Daily’s headquarters for more than two decades in breach of its land lease conditions.

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