Secrecy
surrounding Sun Ho's career did not amount to dishonesty:
Lawyer
SINGAPORE: Secrecy surrounding the inner workings of City
Harvest Church's Crossover Project was to ensure its success and
did not amount to dishonesty, the defence lawyer for one of the six
church leaders appealing their convictions and sentences said on
Monday (Sep 19).
Senior Counsel Andre Maniam, representing former finance manager
Serina Wee, said the Crossover Project – the church's
attempt to reach out to non-Christians by propelling senior pastor
Kong Hee's wife, pastor Sun Ho, to pop stardom – said there was
secrecy around the project because Kong wanted to distance the
church from his wife’s secular singing career.
“That is fundamentally the basis of the Crossover Project. If
(Ms Ho) was seen as a gospel singer, she was just another gospel
singer”, Mr Maniam said.
“The idea ... is if she makes it big in the entertainment
industry, people who would normally not step into a church will go
to her concerts and we can pitch (an evangelical) message to them.
It’s unconventional, some would say controversial. But for it to
succeed, she could not be seen as a church-funded gospel singer”,
the lawyer argued.
Wee, who was also the administrator of the Crossover Project,
was convicted of 10 charges and sentenced to five years’ jail last
November for her role in misappropriating S$50 million in church
funds towards Ms Ho's career. She dealt with the project’s finances
and cash flow, the High Court heard.
Like the other five church leaders appealing their sentences,
Wee claimed she acted in the best interests of the church and was
never dishonest in handling the church’s funds.
Mr Maniam said Wee believed monies transferred to two
church-linked companies – monies which ultimately went towards Sun
Ho’s career – were genuine investments authorised by church
leaders. “If she couldn’t convince herself that what she was doing
was right, then she wouldn’t have done it”, Mr Maniam said.
The lawyer added Wee expected that others – including her
co-defendants deputy senior pastor Tan Ye Peng and former
investment manager Chew Eng Han – had checked with the church’s
auditors and lawyers before investing in the bonds. “She was
one-removed, but equally comforted” by the understanding that her
superiors had checked with the experts, Mr Maniam said.
Tan also had his appeal heard earlier on Monday. Tan's lawyer,
Senior Counsel N Sreenivasan, argued that the pastor held an honest
belief that “the (church) funds were used for a purpose that is not
just permitted but positively mandated, and would be … returned in
full with interest to CHC”.
Mr Sreenivasan said the investments were “dual-purpose”
transactions, which aimed to achieve both the church’s evangelical
objectives while resulting in financial gain for the church.
Monday marked the end of three days of appeals by the six of the
church leaders convicted in relation to the case. The prosecution,
which has launched its own appeal to press for stiffer sentences to
be handed down, will make its case on Tuesday.
- CNA/mz
