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A Hong Kong businessman who has taken on corruption in the construction sector has said he will focus more on his family following his arrest over alleged government-loan fraud.
Jason Poon wrote on Facebook on Friday that he was safe and sound, shortly after local media reported he had been released on bail from the Kowloon City Division Police Station.
The Hong Kong Police Force emblem. File photo: Tom Grundy/HKFP.“I am sorry that I can’t tell you what happened in the past 48 hours. What I can say is that I did not sleep for the first 36 hours, but then I got enough rest for 10 hours,” Poon wrote in the Chinese-language post. “I am now in good spirits. But my phone will not be recovered until tonight.”
He also said that he would stay in Hong Kong, but he would “place family, career and health as the top priorities.”
Sing Tao Daily quoted Poon as telling reporters, “I am fine,” as he left the police station around noon.
Local media reported on Thursday that Poon was among six people arrested by the police over fraud linked to a government loan scheme.
According to a police statement on Thursday, two men and four women were arrested on Wednesday for suspected fraud linked to the Special 100% Loan Guarantee.
The scheme was launched by the government in early 2020 to help companies amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Jason Poon. File photo: Facebook. The six are accused of offences including fraud and money laundering.
Police later said on Friday that the six had been released on bail and would need to report back in mid-April.
Ming Pao reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources, that Lockill Biochemical Limited, a mask-making company founded by Poon, was suspected of defrauding the government loan scheme of HK$6 million by submitting falsified sales figures and inflated salary records.
The suspects include Poon, his wife and staff at Lockill, according to Ming Pao.
Previously, in early 2025, police arrested six people, including at least one director of the parent company of independent media outlet Channel C, for allegedly defrauding the Special 100% Loan Guarantee of HK$20 million in total.
Whistleblower
Poon shot to fame in 2018 after he became a whistleblower in an MTR project corner-cutting scandal.
As the boss of an MTR sub-contractor, he told press and lawmakers at the time that senior railway executives already knew about the corner-cutting problems in the Hung Hom station expansion project.
In 2019, Poon established an NGO called CHINAT to monitor the construction sector.
In recent years, Poon has been active in flagging issues in renovation projects at Hong Kong’s residential estates, including the quality of scaffolding nets and the bid-rigging epidemic.
People form a long queue in Tai Po to pay tribute to the victims of the Wang Fuk Court fire in Tai Po on November 30, 2025. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.In the wake of the deadly Wang Fuk Court fire, Poon said on social media that he had been reporting to authorities, including the Fire Services Department and the Labour Department, that some construction companies were using non-fire-retardant scaffolding nets in renovation projects.
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