(Reuters) – Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai stated he personally had “nothing to do with” a report on alleged China enterprise hyperlinks of the son of U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden, however admitted funds from his personal agency had been used to fund it.

Lai, a distinguished democracy advocate in Hong Kong and a staunch China critic, stated on Twitter that he was “sorry” that his flagship newspaper, Apple Day by day, had been implicated in an article by U.S. media outlet NBC.

Within the article, NBC alleged {that a} 64-page doc circulating on the web in regards to the purported connections of Hunter Biden to the Chinese language Communist Social gathering and his enterprise dealings in China had “questionable authorship and nameless sourcing”.

The article cited the co-author of the “intelligence doc”, Christopher Balding, as saying the doc had been “commissioned by Apple Day by day”, which the paper stated in an announcement have been “false allegations”.

Balding, an educational, did not instantly reply to a Reuters request for remark.

Whereas Lai stated that his newspapers had not personally commissioned the 64-page doc, he admitted that his senior government, Mark Simon, had “labored with the venture”.

“Mark used my personal firm’s cash to reimburse for the analysis he requested. It’s solely US$10,000 so he didn’t need to have my approval,” Lai added on Twitter.

“I do know it’s exhausting for anybody to consider that I didn’t find out about it and my integrity is broken.”

In an announcement posted on-line, Simon stated he had resigned due to the incident, and apologised for having “allowed harm to Jimmy on a matter he was utterly at the hours of darkness on”.

He gave no additional particulars when contacted by Reuters.

The Apple Day by day not too long ago revealed two articles on Hunter Biden and his ties to a Taiwanese businessman who the paper stated was a purported dealer “enabling Hunter Biden’s offers in mainland China over a decade”.

However the paper stated in an announcement that these tales had been carried out by its personal journalists in Taiwan with unbiased verification of their very own findings, and have been separate from the 64-page doc.

(Reporting by Hong Kong newsroom; Enhancing by Michael Perry)