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.