Yahoo! Newsroom
- City Harvest Church's finance manager Serina Wee Gek Yin enters
the Subordinate Courts for the trial.
City Harvest
leaders' trial begins
Yahoo!
Newsroom Videos 2:19
City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee and wife Sun Ho
arrive …
[UPDATE on 20 May,
adding details from proceedings on Day 3 of
trial]
More evidence emerged on the third day of the City Harvest Church
(CHC) leaders' misappropriation trial Monday, where former finance
managers Serina Wee and Sharon Tan, who are both among the six
accused church leaders, allegedly sought to avoid scrutiny on the
transactions they were engaging in.
Local media reports quoted an email Wee sent to Tan, where the
former said she wanted to ensure the interests of Advante
Consulting, a firm she holds a directorship position at, were
preserved by making sure it was not mentioned in any of the
transactions so the "auditors wouldn't blame us (Advante)".
Evidence of another email from Wee to Firna director Wahju Hanafi
reportedly showed her asking him to complete some of the
transactions in the "soonest possible time frame" in order to
prevent the bank from raising any questions.
In a response Wahju reportedly sent to Wee, Chew Eng Han and former
accounts assistant Angie Koh, who took the witness stand for the
first time Monday, he said, "All these costs are to be borne by
Xtron or whatever company. We are just instruments to make things
happen."
Also emerging on the third day of the trial proceedings was the
fact that the church had paid some $6 million to one Justin Herz,
who owned JH Music, an American production house and promoter for
City Harvest founder Kong Hee's wife Sun Ho's first
English-language single and album.
The amount was reportedly listed under "additional JH needs" in a
spreadsheet attached in an email sent by Wee in 2009.
Another email Koh sent to Wahju was also pulled out, where she
instructed him to settle a series of transactions to allow the
money to reach Herz in a two-week timeframe.
Asked about this by public prosecutors, Koh said she "could not
remember" what Herz had to do with the drawdown of bonds from
Firna, with which the transactions in question were
associated.
Last Wednesday, former CHC accountant Lai Bao Ting was the first
witness to take the stand in court for the trial against the
mega-church's founder Kong Hee and five of the church's leaders for
alleged misappropriation of funds.
In one set of charges, Kong Hee, Tan Ye Peng, Chew Eng Han, Serina
Wee Gek Yin, Tan Shao Yuen Sharon and Lam Leng Hung (known as John
Lam) are accused of criminal breach of trust for dishonestly
misusing $24 million in church building funds to finance the music
career of Kong's wife, Sun Ho.
In another set, Chew, Tan Ye Peng, Sharon Tan and Wee are said to
have diverted about $26 million in church funds by channelling the
sum into Xtron Productions and PT The First National Glassware
(Firna) as bond investments. This was allegedly to cover up the
"sham transactions" in the first batch of charges.
Lai, a former assistant accountant who had joined CHC in February
2006, was questioned by deputy public prosecutor Tan Kiat Pheng
during the afternoon court session.
The court heard that Lai, who reported to finance managers Wee and
Sharon Tan, was involved in recording transactions between CHC and
Xtron Productions Pte Ltd. In emails, she also would sign off as a
representative of Xtron Productions though she was not a staff of
the company. She explained this was because she was asked to help
handle Xtron's accounts.
During questioning, DPP Tan had asked her whether she understood
the concerns that was raised by external auditor Sim Guan Seng -
the latter had queried the church’s close relationship with third
party Xtron Productions, an artiste management business that used
to handle Sun Ho's career, as well as the church’s investments in
AMAC Capital Partners, a company owned by former church member Chew
Eng Han.
The soft spoken Lai, who wore a maroon top and black pants,
answered "no". In her conditioned statement, she said there were
instances that she followed her manager's (Sharon Tan) instructions
to record entries involving millions of dollars to companies like
Xtron.
Lai stayed on the stand on Thursday as well.
On both the first two days of the trial, crowds of supporters
queued outside the Subordinate Courts at the crack of dawn, with
some reportedly lining up as early as late Tuesday evening, to get
entry passes to the trial.
