Fugitive former Hong Kong lawmaker Ted Hui declared bankrupt for failure to pay legal fees before fleeing
- Ted Hui failed to pay fees for two private prosecutions he launched in 2020, two years before he was convicted of contempt for breach of bail conditions
- Australian-based politician left for Denmark in December 2020 with the court’s permission, but said he intended to jump bail and settle in Britain
Fugitive former lawmaker Ted Hui Chi-fung has been declared bankrupt for failure to pay the legal costs of proceedings and criminal offences he was involved in before he fled Hong Kong in 2020.
High Court Master Kent Yee Kai-siu issued the bankruptcy order against Hui on Tuesday.
Hui, who failed to pay the fees for two private prosecutions he launched in 2020, was convicted of contempt in 2022 for breach of bail conditions and given a three-year jail sentence.
The High Court judge who presided over the 2022 case ordered him to pay the justice department’s costs for the proceedings on an indemnity basis.
But Hui jumped bail and fled the city in late 2020 as he awaited trial over charges related to the 2019 anti-government protests.
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The department filed the bankruptcy petition in November last year.
Yee, in a High Court hearing that lasted less than a minute, said the department had served documents on Hui but had never received a response. He also included the cost of the latest proceedings in the bankruptcy order against Hui.
If a debtor does not appear at a hearing, the Bankruptcy Ordinance rules it is in the court’s power to make a bankruptcy order based on the available proof of the statements and the amount of assets and liabilities submitted in the petition.
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Hui left the city for Denmark in December 2020 with the court’s permission, but announced he intended to jump bail and live in Britain in the short term.
Hui, now living in Australia, along with seven others, had a HK$1 million (US$127,840) bounty put on his head by police for alleged offences that endangered national security.
