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CY Leung defiant as Democratic Party launches crowdfunding campaign to finance inquiry into former Hong Kong leader

Leung calls party members ‘misguided’ as they also file legal advice with prosecutors urging them to charge the former chief executive for corruption

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Leung Chun-ying slammed Democractic Party members as “misguided”. Photo: David Wong
Democratic Party lawmakers raised more than HK$100,000 less than 12 hours after they launched a crowdfunding campaign to bankroll an international investigation into former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying.
The investigation relates to an undeclared HK$50 million (US$6.4 million) payment he received from an Australian firm around the time he took office.

While Leung did not address the launch of Monday’s crowdfunding campaign, he labelled as “misguided” legal advice the party also filed to local prosecutors that said there was sufficient evidence for prosecutors to bring corruption charges against Leung.

CY Leung touts messages from ‘two sessions’ in Beijing at seminar

He said he “reserves all rights to legal resource to protect his reputation” against one of the lawmakers, Lam Cheuk-ting.

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The Democratic Party is seeking HK$2 million to fund the search for evidence as well as recruit lawyers and accountants to analyse information on the case. By Monday evening, 285 Hongkongers had donated more than HK$106,000.

Hong Kong prosecutors ‘still not decided’ whether to charge CY Leung over HK$50 million UGL deal

“Our ultimate goal is to facilitate law enforcement agencies in Hong Kong, or even Australia, or Britain, to uphold justice and law,” Lam said in a press conference on Monday. “If anyone has acted against relevant laws in other jurisdictions, he should be held accountable.” 

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Since 2014, the Independent Commission Against Corruption has been investigating a payment of HK$50 million from Australian engineering firm UGL to Leung while he was the city’s leader from July 2012 to June 30, 2017.

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