NSL cops probe protesters' $259m legal fund

A legal relief fund helping arrested protesters has been ordered to provide information on its donors to national security police over suspected collusion with foreign agents, police announced.

Sources said the trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund and directors of its affiliated Alliance for True Democracy were asked to submit information, including the operation and transactions of funds, as well as details of crowdfunding, donors and the people given aid.

The fund, which had raised more than HK$259 million by this July 31, has asked for one last fundraising of HK$25 million to cover the costs of about 1,000 existing cases as well as meet the operating expenses for the fund's secretariat.

This is the third time in 10 days that the national security police have asked pro-democracy organizations to hand in information about their operations on suspicion of being foreign agents or involved in collusion.

The first two targeted were June 4 vigil organizer Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China and the Hong Kong branch of the Federation for a Democratic China. Police said the national security department had applied to the high court for an order to make material available to investigate whether the fund has been involved in collusion with foreign forces and other possible crimes.

The fund was established in June 2019 to provide legal, medical, psychological and emergency financial assistance to those who were injured, arrested, attacked or threatened with violence during the anti-fugitive bill protests.

The fund announced last month that it will cease operations after next month as the Alliance for True Democracy Ltd - the group whose bank account is used by the fund under a custodian agreement - plans to wind up. The fund's website says it has raised HK$5.2 million from more than 3,756 donors but still needs HK$19.8 million to meet its target yesterday.

Sources said the court order has demanded the fund and the alliance submit records of their donors and recipients of the funds, as well as details of fund-raising drives, transaction history of the account, use of donations and anything related to the organizations' operation.

Explaining the fund's alleged crimes, sources said two of its five trustees - former lawmakers Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee and Cyd Ho Sau-lan - were sentenced over an illegal assembly in 2019. Ng got 24 months suspended and Ho 14 months in jail.

"But they were unremorseful as Ng remained high-profile and hosted the final press briefing announcing the fund's termination during her suspended sentence," one of the sources said.

He also said another trustee, Cantopop star-turned activist Denise Ho Wan-sze, had publicly supported candidates in a pro-democracy primary election last year, in which 47 of those taking part and organizers had been arrested for alleged national security offenses.

Catholic cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun and Hui Po-keung, Lingnan University's cultural studies adjunct associate professor, are also trustees of the fund.

On the fund's alleged collusion with foreign forces, sources said the fund had publicly revealed its sponsorship of a trip to London and Geneva by the Hong Kong Higher Institutions International Affairs Delegation to ask for sanctions against SAR officials.

It also allegedly provided legal and medical subsidies to protesters who fled to Taiwan and Canada.

The fund also received a HK$540,000 donation from the Yellow Dandelion Foundation, which was founded in the United States to support Hong Kong protesters, and multiple transactions totaling HK$1.3 million from pro-democracy publication Apple Daily.

Sources also said the alliance allegedly violated the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation's rule in using its accounts to raise funds to be used for political purposes and to support social movements.

"The bank bears the responsibility to conduct compliance investigations on its clients. It should validate clients' identities and has the right to freeze the sums in accounts or even terminate the accounts," the source said.

He said that under the national security law and the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance, the police have the right to ask banks to freeze the alliance's accounts, or even send the bank notices about alleged money laundering activities and ask the bank to terminate relevant accounts.

"The fund could have announced termination of all crowdfunding activities and stopped accepting donations immediately after announcing the end of its operation, but it insisted on setting a last fund-raising target, which is very suspicious," the source said.