Exile Ted Hui Financially Strapped

Ted Hui has found at least five bank accounts are frozen

 

Former opposition lawmaker Ted Hui Chi-fung arrived in Britain with the intention of starting his new life there in exile, but found his Hong Kong bank accounts were frozen.

There are at least five bank accounts belonging to him, his wife and his parents that have been inaccessible since Saturday. One of the financial institutions is HSBC.

Some of the affected bank accounts are HSBC

Hui called the banks and was told there were "remarks" placed on their accounts and staff refused to divulge what this meant.

"I discovered it when I tried to log into my online bank accounts and found they were not functioning. Those were our life savings," he said. "It's obviously retaliation by economic duress."

The 38-year-old Hui absconded the several criminal charges he was facing in relation to last year's anti-government protests. He apparently crowdfunded HK$3.5 million to help fight five court cases, including a private prosecution of police over a shooting case last year. 

James To Kun-sun, a lawyer and member of the Democratic Party said he had no knowledge of the crowdfunding, but that jumping court bail was not legal grounds to freeze Hui and his family's bank accounts. 

"Unless evidence showed crowdfunding money went to the family accounts," To said. "But crowdfunding itself is not illegal. I think it is political prosecution."

To (centre) says freezing bank accounts illegal

It isn't clear when Hui was given the green light by Magistrate Peter Law Tak-chuen to travel to Denmark, but it obviously did not leave a lot of time for the former Democratic Party lawmaker to clearly plan out everything, including his finances before he and later his family left Hong Kong.

However, what the banks have done is illegal, particularly in the case of freezing the bank accounts of Hui's wife and his parents; it has the hallmarks of a mainland Chinese retaliation for him not appearing in court to face charges.

His case shows those who intend to flee the law need to take everything they need with them -- there is no going back.