City
Harvest leaders have a case to answer: judge
By Jeanette Tan
| Yahoo Newsroom – 11 hours ago
The
six accused persons in the City Harvest funds misappropriation
trial are willing to take the stand to testify in their
defence when it
resumes in July after the judge ruled there was a case they needed
to respond to.
In
his decision, Chief District Judge See Kee Oon said on Monday that
the prosecution has provided sufficient evidence for the charges
faced by founder Kong Hee, pastor Tan Ye Peng, John Lam,
accountants Serina Wee and Sharon Tan, as well as former church
leader Chew Eng Han.
The charges
include criminal breach of trust and falsification of accounts,
among others centering around the alleged misuse of some $24
million of City Harvest Church (CHC) building funds to further
Kong’s wife Ho Yeow Sun’s singing career, as well as the alleged
use of $26.6 million to conceal the first amount.
Noting that the
evidence presented is more documentary than it is oral — in the
form of numerous emails — Chief District Judge See said it was
sufficient, in his assessment, to support the contention that CHC's
money was misappropriated.
"There is
evidence that the relevant accused persons all intended that loss
should be caused to CHC," he said, referring to the removal of
money from the church's building fund and transferring it to Xtron
Productions, the entertainment firm backing Ho's career. "Moreover,
from the evidence, it would appear that the accused persons knew
that they were not legally entitled to do so."
The judge also
said that the evidence produced in court thus far "demonstrates
that the accused persons withheld some important information from
the auditors", as well as from executive members of CHC.
Also, because
there is evidence that the accused knew that the building fund
could be used for specific purposes only, Chief District Judge See
said it can reasonably be inferred that they were dishonest,
because they knew they were not legally allowed to use the money
the way the did.
He
also said that in his view, evidence has been produced to show that
the accounts relating to the monies in question were falsely
declared. Further, he said the evidence shows that they "had
intended all along that money would be 'round-tripped' from and
back to CHC, but nonetheless kept the true nature of these
transactions from the auditors and CHC's executive
members".
Lawyers for all
six on Monday expressed their clients’ willingness to take the
stand to give evidence when the trial starts again on 14 July. They
declined further comment when approached by reporters outside
court.
