Hong Kong student jailed for 1 year and 4 months over money laundering charge linked to 2019 protest fund

A Hong Kong man has been jailed for one year and four months over his links to a fundraising platform that supported protesters in 2019.

Yu Yan-yuk, currently a student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, appeared at the District Court on Wednesday afternoon, local media reported. He earlier pleaded not guilty to money laundering but was convicted in March after trial.

He was among four people linked to Spark Alliance, a crowdfunded organisation that financed bail applications for those arrested during the 2019 protests and unrest, who was arrested in December 2019. Police said they had frozen around HK$70 million in the fund’s account after uncovering “suspicious financial transactions” over the previous six months conducted by a shell company, including large cash deposits and funds used to buy personal insurance products.

Yu was 17 at the time of the offence. Judge David Ko said Yu – now 22 – was the owner of the bank account involved in the offence, which saw around 23 deposits and 90 withdrawals within a three-month period.

But he added that there was no evidence that the defendant had benefitted financially, InMedia reported.

Spark Alliance. File photo: Wikicommons.

Ko set a starting sentence of one year and six months. Taking into account that Yu’s arrest took place over four years ago, in which time he had “started a new life” despite the uncertainties of his case, Ko took two months off the term to arrive at a sentence of one year and four months.

2019 protest fund

Spark Alliance, established in 2016 following the Mong Kok riot the year before, was one of the largest crowdfunded initiatives supporting protesters during the unrest in 2019.

The platform provided bail fees and legal advice for those who were apprehended. It also encouraged members of the public to write letters to people in detention.

After police arrested four people linked to the fund in December 2019, protesters gathered in Central to show their support for the group.

may james china extradition best of — A protest in 2019. File photo: May James.

Ahead of the sentencing on Wednesday, the defence said it hoped that the judge could hand down a detention centre order – an alternative to imprisonment – to allow Yu to complete his computer science degree at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The defence added that Yu was young at the time, and that if he could turn back time, he would not have lent out his bank account.

Spark Alliance has not announced its closure unlike the dozens of civil society groups that were active during the 2019 protests. But its Facebook page has seen only sporadic updates, and its most recent post was in January 2023, announcing a change in its correspondence address.

Protests erupted in the summer of 2019 over a controversial extradition bill that would have allowed the transfer of criminal suspects to mainland China. The protests ballooned into a wider display of opposition against the Hong Kong and Beijing authorities, as well as alleged police brutality.