Jimmy Lai insists on his innocence, after being accused of funding a report discrediting Joe Biden, the US presidential candidate. (File photo)Apple Daily owner Jimmy Lai Chee-ying was said to have unknowingly paid for a report compiled under a fake persona, which was used to discredit the United States presidential candidate Joe Biden before the November 3 election. The media mogul tweeted on Friday evening that his right-hand man Mark Simon withdrew money from his private company’s account without his knowledge to endorse the project, accusing Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, of having business affiliation with China. He did not explain why he asked Balding, a former professor at Fulbright University Vietnam, to conduct research on Hunter Biden, with sources saying that Simon was unaware of Balding's 64-page report. U.S. media outlet NBC claimed that the 64-page document circulating on the internet about the alleged connections between Hunter Biden and the Chinese Communist Party and his business dealings in China had “questionable authorship and anonymous sourcing”.

Source: The Standard October 31, 2020 09:56 UTC