Breakdown of Sun Ho's Hollywood budget (LianHe WanBao 27 August 2013)

(Translation of article)
All Figures In USD

Producer Wyclef Jean (Producer of China Wine)   $1,670,000
"My Right To Love You" song production             $13,725
"Gone" song production                                       $85,163
"What Kind Of World" song production                 $25,000
"One Day You Will" song production                     $25,000
Producer and other artistes                                 $1,600,000
Music video production                                       $1,057,000
Album publicity                                                  $1,100,000
Other expenses                                                   $2,000,000
Tas Stenier Public Relations                                $162,000
JH Management production company                    $270,000

Total                                                                        $8,007,888



(blogger's note: i haven't released any albums, but shouldn't you have an album before you start spending so much on album publicity? then again, what do I know)

When CHC makes News in its own City (Breakfast Network, 27 August 2013)

by Augustin Chiam

Yesterday marked the resumption of the much-anticipated trial of several senior City Harvest Church (CHC) leaders for allegedly siphoning off tens of millions of dollars and covering it up through what prosecutors are calling “round-tripping”.

Following the line of inquiry during the first leg of the trial, prosecutors continued to ask questions of Xtron Productions’ relationship with CHC. The main witness being cross-examined yesterday was Mr Choong Kar Weng who has been a director at Xtron since Dec 31, 2005.

Although another director at Xtron, Mr Koh Siow Ngea, had earlier insisted that Xtron and CHC are independent, Mr Choong Kar Weng did not seem to be able to give an adequate explanation when presented by evidence from the prosecution indicating heavy involvement of CHC staff in Xtron’s operations.

Yahoo reported that when asked why an employee of CHC, Mr Suraj, was approving staff bonuses at Xtron and why Deputy Pastor of CHC, Mr Tan Ye Peng, was asked to vet Xtron’s meeting minutes, Mr Choong replied that he did not know.

According to TODAY’s report, Mr Suraj was also listed (wrongly?) as a member of Xtron in its meeting minutes dated Dec 29, 2006. Because Mr Choong is primarily based in Malaysia, Mr Suraj was entrusted with the day-to-day operations of Xtron despite being a CHC staff. Mr Choong also said during the hearing that he trusted Mr Suraj as a “long-time friend”. TODAY’s report also showed that Mr Choong claimed ignorance when asked about a $13 million bond issued by Xtron and bought by CHC, as well as an email from Ms Serina Wee indicating that Ms Ho Yeow Sun’s – wife of CHC founder, Mr Kong Hee who is one of the six on trial – album sales were not enough to pay off the bond.

Additional reporting by ST revealed that Mr Choong was “invited to take up the Xtron directorship by Kong, even though the megachurch founder did not hold any appointments in the company”. But ST’s report also showed that Mr Choong’s ties with CHC go beyond dealings at Xtron. He had been a board member at CHC from 1999 to 2004 and is also a director at Attributes, CHC’s bookstore.
The reports from the mainstream media seemed to suggest that Mr Choong was altogether clueless about the operations of Xtron despite being a director.

Curiously, CHC’s in-house media team, City News, provided a different account of the proceedings. They reported that Mr Choong’s answer to the queries was to reply that “decisions were often made jointly, as the Crossover Project was a partnership between Xtron and CHC”. Another detail only reported in City News was the prosecution’s queries about why Choong signed off in several meeting minutes although the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority’s (ICA) records indicated that he was not in Singapore. Mr Choong’s reply was that the ICA’s records could be inaccurate(!) and he could not recall when exactly the discussions in question took place.

Apart from Mr Choong’s dealings, ST reports also reveal that Ms Ho allegedly received more than half a million in bonuses and advances which were disguised as “personal gifts” from sponsors in document records doctored by CHC leaders. In an incriminating email produced by the prosecution in court, finance manager of Xtron, Ms Wee wrote: “… I have come up with a proposed list of persons to talk to, to get them to write a letter to Xtron to say that their giving is meant for Sun personally … we don’t want Xtron to be seen giving money to her beyond her salary.”

City News was conspicuously silent on this matter regarding “personal gifts” to Ms Ho.

Can the prosecution make a convincing case that CHC staff’s involvement in Xtron goes beyond an innocuous business partnership – and by implication, that Xtron’s purpose is more than meets the eye? The trial continues…


(blogger's note: I can't help but wonder what the director actually knows about Xtron, what he does in Xtron, what was the criteria they were looking for in a director)

Church leaders 'controlled' Xtron (Singapore Law Watch, 27 August 2013)

Source: Straits Times

Date: 27 Aug 2013

Author: Feng Zengkun

Music firm was not independent, says prosecution

CITY Harvest Church leaders ran the show in all but name at Xtron Productions, a music company that they allegedly used to illegally divert church funds to.

This was the picture that prosecutors tried to paint on the opening day of the second leg of the criminal trial against church founder Kong Hee and five of his deputies.

They spent the day questioning one witness, Xtron director Choong Kar Weng, and tried to show that Xtron was not the independent entity it made itself out to be, but was controlled by church leaders; and Mr Choong, a mere puppet of the leadership.

The Malaysian businessman, for instance, was not aware of e-mails from the firm's accountants showing they consulted the megachurch on decisions ranging from its accounts to staff employment.

He signed incomplete documents - which had blank portions - related to bonds eventually sold by Xtron to the church, although when asked, he said this was done as he was not based in Singapore.

He also signed off on minutes of meetings even though immigration records apparently showed he was not in the country.
Xtron was set up as a music production house and concert organiser in 2003 by two of the accused, John Lam Leng Hung and Chew Eng Han, and Chew's wife Chong Lay Choo. It is one of two companies accused of helping the megachurch to funnel church funds to bankroll the music career of singer-pastor Ho Yeow Sun, who is Kong's wife. Xtron managed Ms Ho from 2003 to 2008 and provided audio-visual and real estate services to the church.

Yesterday, Mr Choong also admitted to being unaware of Xtron's day-to-day operations, leaving the job partly to City Harvest employee Mr Suraj - who goes by one name - whom he described as a "good friend". He was usually in Singapore only once every two weeks, so he needed Mr Suraj's help, he said.

 Asked whether this was a conflict of interest since City Harvest business made up a majority of the firm's income, Mr Choong said: "I've known Suraj for many years. I don't think he would do anything that will harm or is detrimental to Xtron."

Kong and five other church leaders allegedly misused $24 million of church funds to finance Ms Ho's singing ambitions, and purportedly took another $26 million to cover up the first amount. The state believes this was done partly through bonds issued by Xtron which City Harvest bought.

Asked about the bonds, Mr Choong said the firm and church were partners on the Crossover Project, which involved Ms Ho promoting Christianity through her secular pop music. Some time before the bonds were issued in 2007, the firm calculated it would need to raise an additional $13 million for the project, he said.

He said he did not know who came up with the bond idea, but "it was communicated" to him by Tan Ye Peng or Chew, who are accused of the misuse of funds. Mr Choong said the plan presented to him already had terms such as the bonds' interest rate, and he did not negotiate the terms nor seek independent legal advice on it.

"There wasn't any reason I would do that. These were people that I know, that I work with, that I trust. These are not strangers." He continues on the stand today.
zengkun@sph.com.sg

---

Background Story

NO REASON TO QUESTION
There wasn't any reason I would do that.
These were people that I know, that I work with, that I trust. These are not strangers.
- Xtron director Choong Kar Weng, on why he did not seek independent legal advice on the bond investment plan

---

Singer Ho's over $500k in bonuses, advances

POP singer Ho Yeow Sun received more than half a million in bonuses and advances, including a $30,000 birthday cash gift and an $80,000 "special performance bonus for hits in the US or the United Kingdom" in 2006.

 But to divert attention from some of these extra takings, leaders of City Harvest Church allegedly doctored documents to show that sponsors had given the money to her as "personal gifts".

These details emerged on the first day of the second leg of the trial involving six church leaders accused of misusing millions of church funds. The high-profile trial had resumed after a three- month break.

Yesterday, prosecutors tried to show that Ms Ho's former management company, Xtron Productions, was a puppet company controlled by the church's leadership, including founder Kong Hee, who is her husband.

The State is accusing the six of using Xtron and another firm, Firna, to funnel $24 million of church funds into paying for Ms Ho's secular pop music career, and then misappropriating another $26 million to cover that up.

Like at the first part of the trial in May, supporters started lining up outside the Subordinate Courts from as early as 4am for a spot in the 80-seater public gallery in Court 3.

A solemn Ms Ho showed up in court, hand-in-hand with her smiling husband for the first half of the day's proceedings.

One of the accused, Chew Eng Han, a church stalwart and its investment manager who had quit in June, kept his distance from the rest. He did not speak to the other five in the dock, and stood aside from them during breaks.

The trial continues today and prosecution witness Choong Kar Weng, Xtron's director and long- time church member, is expected to take the stand again.
MELODY ZACCHEUS
melodyz@sph.com.sg

---

Xtron director claims limited role in Crossover Project (Business Times, 27 August 2013)

Accused manipulated details of Xtron bond issue, prosecution attempts to prove

[SINGAPORE] Throngs of faithful supporters, family members and rubber-neckers crowded the Subordinate Courts yesterday as City Harvest Church (CHC) pastor Kong Hee and five other defendants charged with criminal breach of trust (CBT) turned up for the second tranche of the year's most high-profile hearing.

Court 3, which will host the proceedings for the next four weeks, was full to bursting as both concerned and curious individuals sought to ensure that they got a piece of the action.

Yesterday saw the prosecution attempt to make its case that church members had dishonestly misappropriated $13 million from the church's Building Fund to fund Kong's wife Sun Ho's music career - under the guise of buying up "sham" bonds from the music production house that managed her career, Xtron Productions.

Deputy public prosecutor Christopher Ong, who led the questioning yesterday, called up a string of emails between the accused, seeking to prove that they manipulated details of a bond issue by Xtron to CHC to suit their purposes.

Kong, deputy senior pastor Tan Ye Peng (Tan YP), former board member Chew Eng Han, board member John Lam Leng Hung, finance manager Sharon Tan, and former finance manager and board member Serina Wee, stand accused of misusing some $50 million of the church's funds to promote Ms Ho's music career through an elaborate series of round-tripping and sham bond transactions.

Chew, Wee and the two Tans are also charged with conspiring to falsify accounts.

The publicised split between the CHC defendants was obvious before yesterday's session began, as Chew - who announced in June he had cut off ties with the rest of the church - stood conspicuously apart from the other defendants, even while Ms Ho looked on from the public gallery in a show of support for her husband.

Chew had suggested on his blog that he left the church because his spiritual and moral principles did not align with theirs.

The hearing, the first tranche of which took place for a week in May, resumed yesterday with Choong Kar Weng, one of two directors of Xtron and a former CHC board member, on the stand.

Mr Choong testified that he had little idea as to whether Xtron had enough cash to redeem some $13 million worth of bonds it issued to the church in 2007, ostensibly to cover a shortfall of cash on the part of Xtron, when he signed off on the deal to issue the bonds. He added that he did not get involved with Xtron's bond issue, leaving this to several members of the church even though none of them held a position in Xtron.

"I'm just not familiar with all these bonds, the issuing of bonds," he said.

Mr Choong, a Malaysian with permanent resident status in Singapore, added that he relied upon the cashflow projections prepared by Wee, who provided accounting services to Xtron.

"Can you tell us who made the decisions when the bonds should be drawn out?" DPP Ong asked.

"I can't tell you who made the decisions. As I said, once the overall budget has been approved, I leave it to Serina (Wee)," Mr Choong said.

DPP Ong referred to an email Wee sent to Tan YP in 2007, which said: "This cashflow is based on the conservative estimate of 200,000 (Sun Ho) albums sold. With the proceeds . . . (we) will not be able to repay the $13 million bonds or have funds to do another album."

In another email, Wee said to Tan YP: "We based our projection on 200,000 copies of English Album (by Sun Ho) sold which will only yield us $2.7 million - hardly enough to pay off the $13 million. So we will need 10 years (as a repayment period for Xtron) as previously discussed, assuming no other new unbudgeted expenditure."

In yet another email called up by DPP Ong yesterday, Wee says to Tan YP about the repayment period: "Just that CHC can't keep having this $13 million being invested in bonds once the building is on the way and completed. Members will wonder why do we still need to raise so much money and then still have money to invest."

Mr Choong said Tan YP was involved in these discussions, even though he held no position in Xtron, because the church was invested in the success of Ms Ho's music albums.

"The Crossover Project (CHC's idea of using pop music for evangelism) is the partnership between Xtron and City Harvest. Xtron manages Sun (Ho), but there is a higher purpose where we want to touch lives. They (Kong and Tan YP) are not . . . I don't see them as working full-time for Xtron. In many ways, they are just fulfilling their parts in . . . from CHC point of view," Mr Choong said.
When asked why, if it was Xtron that needed money at the time, that it was Kong and Chew who proposed the idea of the bond issue to Mr Choong (instead of the other way around), Mr Choong said: "The Crossover Project is important to both Xtron as well as to CHC . . . it's just in the interests of both parties to solve this matter."

"How we work, for the Crossover Project, is that I personally don't get involved when the money was being sent. I left all those things to Serina (Wee)," he added.

The hearing resumes today, with Mr Choong remaining on the stand.

City Harvest Trial Resumes (Singapore Law Watch, 27 August 2013)

Nine prosecution witnesses lined up for the second phasestarting today

Source: Straits Times

Date: 26 Aug 2013

THE high-profile criminal trial involving City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee and five of his deputies will be a drawn-out affair that is set to continue until March next year.

Its second leg resumes today, and is scheduled for about a month. The first leg took just two weeks in May, but the third will be the longest: from Jan 13 to March 7, with a one-week break in February.

State prosecutors will continue to trot out their witnesses in this second phase, with nine people lined up to be grilled.

First up is Mr Choong Kah Weng, current director of Xtron Productions, the company at the centre of the battle.

Six church leaders were charged last year with conspiring to cheat the megachurch of millions of dollars. They had allegedly misused $24 million of church funds to bankroll the music career of Kong's pop-singer wife Ho Yeow Sun, and purportedly taken another $26 million to cover up the first amount.

Xtron, a production house that used to manage Ms Ho's music career and was set up by two of the leaders, has been accused of acting as a conduit to divert church funds. These were then allegedly used to bankroll her singing ambitions.

Mr Wahju Hanafi, former Xtron director and owner of Firna and Ultimate Assets, will be next on the witness stand.

Firna, an Indonesian glassware firm, is also named as a company that the church leaders diverted money to.

Mr Wahju will be the key witness to watch. The Indonesian businessman and Singapore permanent resident is the co-owner of the Sentosa Cove penthouse where Kong and his family live. He has also given large sums of money to the church.

While none of the accused is expected to take the stand this time around, observers will be keeping a close eye on the relationship dynamics between Chew Eng Han and the other five church leaders, especially Kong.

Chew, a church stalwart and its appointed investment manager, quit abruptly in June, prompted by what he called "a collision of primarily spiritual and moral principles".

Others due to be questioned include the church's trustees - Mr Jeffrey Cheong, Mr Tan Yew Meng and Ms Susan Ong.

Four auditors from Baker Tilly are also on the witness list, including Mr Sim Guan Seng, who had raised repeated concerns about the money that was channelled to Xtron.

The church has started four prayer initiatives, "to involve the entire church in supporting the six leaders and their families spiritually", said a spokesman.

Meanwhile, it has once again been accused of soliciting donations for the leadership's legal fees.

A staff member has supposedly made a recording of Ms Ho reminding church staff to give to the legal fund, and presented it to the authorities.

The Commissioner of Charities' Office said it is looking into the matter.

Last year, it gave the church a warning after a donation form was circulated. It said neither the church nor its staff were allowed to get involved in raising funds for the accused's legal expenses.

Xtron was controlled by City Harvest, prosecutors sought to show (ST, 26 Aug 2013)

Xtron was controlled by City Harvest, prosecutors sought to show (ST: Published on Aug 26, 2013
2:03 PM)

City Harvest Church leaders were involved in major decisions such as budgets and staff employment at Xtron Productions, a music production company accused of helping the church to misuse church funds, the state sought to show on Monday.

When questioned on the witness stand, Xtron director Choong Kar Weng also admitted that the company did not seek to profit from its City Harvest business although this made up the majority of its income.

Xtron is one of two companies alleged to have helped the megachurch to funnel church funds to bankroll the music career of pastor-singer Ho Yeow Sun, who is also wife of the church's founder Kong Hee.

The state showed through emails and meeting minutes prepared by Xtron employees, that City Harvest employees were consulted on the company's matters even though they were not on its payroll. In some cases their approval was also sought. These church employees included Tan Ye Peng, one of the six accused.

Claiming that he was seeing many of these minutes and emails for the first time, Mr Choong also said that the day-to-day operations were handled by Mr Suraj, a church employee whom he called a "good friend". Asked whether this represented a conflict of interest for the company, Mr Choong said: "I trust Suraj and believe he would not have done anything harmful and detrimental to Xtron."
Kong and the five other church leaders were charged last year with conspiring to cheat the megachurch of millions of dollars. They allegedly misused $24 million of church funds to bankroll Ms Ho's singing ambitions, and purportedly took another $26 million to cover up the first amount.

Introduction & FAQ

I decided to start this blog after a conversation with a friend over lunch, who suggested I do this so that 1 day when we look back, we can see how things unfolded, without having to scroll through the other rubbish I have on my facebook page.

sounded like such a great idea I have no idea why I hadn't thought of it myself.

so here it is, Satay News!

And I thought I should begin with a short FAQ:



1. What is Satay News about?

this blog is a collection of news articles from various sources regarding the case of the City Harvest Church case.


2. What case is that?

Six church leaders, including founder Kong Hee, were charged last year (2012) with misusing $24 million in church monies to fund the pop music career of Kong's wife Sun Ho.
It is alleged that they took another $26 million to cover up the first amount.


3. When will the court case resume?

26 – 30 January 2015
2 – 6 February 2015
16 – 26 March 2015
30 – 31 March 2015
1 – 17 April 2015
4 – 6 May 2015
11 – 15 May 2015
18 – 20 May 2015
25 – 29 May 2015
2 – 12 June 2015
(Pending confirmation: Additional dates: 27 – 30 April 2015 and 7 – 8 May 2015)

4. Why are you doing this?

Because I still consider myself part of city harvest and I want to know what is revealed in the trial.

Because I can't find one website that can give me all the details of what is going on in the trial. and in case you were wondering, ESPECIALLY city news. but if you want to read Disney version of events, here's the link.

Because I think it is dangerous to be an ostrich.
we can hide in our own wells until the sandstorm buries us alive, or we can know when the sandstorm is coming by sticking our heads out and actually do something about it. even if there really is nothing we can do, at least we can be mentally prepared

Because i REALLY don't think that at the end of the day, the judge will decide on the verdict based on what pastors are telling us, or what city news reported.


5. What is your stand on this whole case?

I think we must first be clear not to confuse the lines between the 6 accused and the church.
Kong Hee, and the other 5, are NOT representing the church, and definitely NOT representing God when they stand before the judge.
They are there purely because of their own actions, or lack thereof.

The state has come out on more than 1 occasion to say that this is NOT a persecution on the church, this is done to protect the church.
I feel it has been proven necessary, given the amount of cover-ups that has already been revealed so far.
Without this, we would never know what is going on behind the scenes.


How much does anyone know about where the money is going and what is being done with it?
How much authority and autonomy should we give the leadership?
Where is the corporate governance? With the amount of wrong doing and cover ups we have seen so far, the directors are obviously not doing their due diligence.

Transparency is something we see, and not just something we hear the leaders talk about.
 




As stated at the beginning, the rest of the blog will be a compilation of articles from various sources. I take no credit.
I will list the source of the information and provide the link to the source whenever possible.


All highlighted portions are my own emphasis.
At times, I might slip in with my own opinion, but it would be clearly labelled.

Live long, and may the truth set you free.