Emails produced to show how accused round-tripped funds
[SINGAPORE]
The third day of the City Harvest Church (CHC) hearing, with a fresh
witness on the stand, saw the prosecution casting further doubt on the
authenticity of the church's multi-million investments.
The court
heard how a $56.6-million advance rental contract, which CHC had
entered into with Xtron Productions Pte Ltd, for the use of Singapore
Expo Hall 8 to accommodate its congregation - was an entirely made-up
figure.
And emails were presented to show how CHC and its related parties "round-tripped" funds.
The
prosecution first produced emails relating to the advanced rental
agreement between CHC and Xtron - a music production house and events
organiser that also managed Sun Ho's career - which was supposed to
begin on Oct 1, 2009. According to instructions sent out by CHC finance
manager Sharon Tan - one of the six accused - CHC was to pay Xtron eight
years' advance rental, calculated as such: $7 million a year, excluding
GST. In addition, CHC was to pay Xtron $7 million as a deposit,
bringing the total contract sum, including GST, to some $56.5 million.
When
asked by yesterday's witness, Angie Koh, in an email dated Oct 9, 2009,
what the $7 million was made up of and how it was derived, former CHC
finance manager Serina Wee - also one of the six accused - replied, via
email on that day, "It is just an arbitrary figure. No one has worked
out any details I believe."
Wee is currently, and was at that
time, a director and a 70-per-cent shareholder of Advante Consulting Pte
Ltd, which provided accounting services for Xtron. Ms Koh was, in
October 2009, providing book-keeping services to Advante's clients,
including Xtron. She now holds the remaining 30 per cent of Advante and
is its managing director.
The prosecution also produced other
emails to back up its claims that CHC round-tripped funds to hide its
misuse of funds and make various "sham" investments look genuine. One
showed AMAC Capital Partners, owned by CHC member Chew Eng Han - also
one of the accused - paying $5.8 million to Ultimate Assets (UA), owned
by Wahju Hanafi, an Indonesian businessman with multiple links to CHC.
The
$5.8 million was then due to be transferred to another of Mr Hanafi's
companies, The First National Glassware (Firna); but Mr Hanafi said, "I
have to leave it sit (for a) few days then instruct them as bank already
asked what's (the) money for."
Chew then emailed Mr Hanafi: "Can
you tt out by Thurs(day)? Can just tell them it's funds for a
short-term loan to Firna? That is a valid transaction."
Sharon
Tan then emailed Mr Hanafi to say: "We will be depositing S$5.6mil into
UA by 19 Oct. However, we will need S$5,228,750 back into CHC's account
from Firna by 13 Oct in order for the 2nd round to be possible.
Therefore, we NEED to keep to the timeline."
She emailed again later to say that this was the timeline Mr Hanafi needed to meet:
"6 Oct: UA received S$5.8mil
6 Oct: UA to trf (transfer) out S$5.8mil to Firna
9 Oct: Firna to redeem S$5mil bonds with interest payment. Total is S$5,228,750
19 Oct: UA will receive S$5.6mil
19 Oct: UA to trf out S$5.6mil to Firna
22 Oct: Firna to redeem S$6mil bonds with interest payment. Total is S$6,134,625."
The
prosecution showed another email where this timeline repeats itself
again - ie. the second round Tan referred to - making for a total amount
of $11.4 million ($5.8 million + $5.6 million) being paid to UA to
start the cycle.
It is the prosecution's case that a total of
some $24 million of CHC's Building Fund was "dishonestly
misappropriated" to fund Sun Ho's music career and for use by Mr Hanafi,
while another $26.6 million was diverted to cover these tracks.
The
prosecution said, in its opening statement, that a total of $11.4
million of CHC's building funds was "invested" in a Special
Opportunities Fund (SOF) managed by AMAC. This was then "round-tripped"
to "redeem" $11 million "invested" in Firna bonds, by AMAC lending the
monies to UA; UA then lent the monies to Firna, and Firna then
"redeemed" the Firna bonds originally issued to CHC as part of the sham
bond investments.
A total of $12 million in CHC funds was then
supposedly paid out to Xtron as "purported advance rental", but this
"rental" was instead used by Xtron to purchase $11.5 million worth of
Firna bonds. This sum was then used by Firna to repay the loan it
received from UA, which in turn used this money to repay the loan
previously received from AMAC. AMAC then "redeemed" CHC's purported
investment in the SOF, thus closing the loop on the Firna bonds.
Under
examination by chief prosecutor Mavis Chionh, Ms Koh revealed she
maintained two sets of accounts for Xtron relating to the advance rental
payment from CHC - one set showing the "official expenses" and the
"official advance balance", which is the advance from CHC minus the
official expenses, and another set showing the "unofficial expenses" and
the "real cash balance" figures. Ms Koh testified that the unofficial
numbers were to show what the real balance truly was - and it is the
prosecution's case that these figures take into account the
"round-tripping".
However, under cross-examination by Senior
Counsel Michael Khoo, who represents Chew, Ms Koh later said that the
two sets of figures represent the actual and the worst-case scenarios -
the first being where the only source of income was the advance rental,
and the other where income was obtained from other sources as well, such
as Ms Ho's music career and album sales.
But, Ms Chionh, in her
re-examination of Ms Koh, showed that this did not add up. Xtron's
financials show that the company's net loss for the financial year 2007
was $2.4 million, and $9.0 million in 2008. With Xtron no longer
managing Ms Ho after 2008, non-CHC income was just $153,691, while CHC
income was $4.9 million.
Ms Chionh also pointed out that Xtron's
external auditors passed the company's accounts on the going concern
assumption that "the directors and creditors will continue to provide
financial support".
The hearing continues today.
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