China Innovation Investment (01217): Court Rules These Defendants Are Liable to Defame Plaintiffs

Zhitong Finance App News, China Innovation Investment (01217) issued an announcement containing a series of announcements relating to false news reports. The Board of Directors of the Company is pleased to announce that the Court of First Instance of the Hong Kong High Court issued a judgment on August 18, 2026, ruling that the plaintiff won the lawsuit on and after “Apple Daily” published multiple defamatory articles against the company, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mr. Xiang Xin, and Mr. Xiang's replacement director Ms. Gong Qing (plaintiff).

With regard to the first defendant Apple Daily Limited and the second defendant Apple Internet Co., Ltd. published a total of 10 articles containing defamatory content between November and December 2019 (which made false and malicious accusations against the plaintiffs, including referring to the company as intelligence agencies, referring to Mr. Xiang and Ms. Gong as intelligence agents or agents, and alleging that they engaged in various deceptive and/or illegal acts in Hong Kong, Taiwan and/or overseas), the court ruled that these defendants must pay a total of HK$1.5 million in damages and related interest All costs of the case.

The plaintiff has reached a settlement with the third defendant, Luo Weiguang. Furthermore, since court documents against the fourth to seventh defendants (TheAge Company Pty Ltd, Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd, Nine Network AustraliaApty Ltd, and Wang Liqiang) were never delivered, the plaintiff decided not to continue the investigation.

The board of directors believes that the judgment fully demonstrated the impartiality of the administration of justice, returned the company, Mr. Xiang and Ms. Gong's innocence, and strongly corrected the damage caused to the reputation of the company and related persons by the false news reports involved in the case.