[SINGAPORE] The prosecution yesterday sought to cast doubt on its witness, City Harvest Church (CHC) member and Indonesian businessman Wahju Hanafi.
He was first called out for claiming that he had not seen a key document, when there was proof that he had. Then it was shown that monies he had claimed to be his were claimed by CHC to be its.
The prosecution's questioning yesterday centred on an $11 million bond issue Mr Hanafi's company, First National Glassware (Firna), made to CHC in 2008. This was a transaction that the prosecution claims is part of an elaborate round-tripping scheme undertaken by several members of the church.
Under the bond agreement, Firna was to issue up to $24.5 million in bonds to CHC. The church was then entitled to convert these bonds into shares in Firna, amounting to 40 per cent of Firna's issued capital.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Kiat Pheng yesterday revisited a "secret agreement" made between Mr Hanafi and the church - first produced as evidence in court last week - and entered into in parallel with the bond agreement.
The "secret agreement" - outlined in a letter signed by CHC board member John Lam - was that, in the event that the bonds were converted to shares in Firna, CHC would undertake to sell back those shares to Mr Hanafi and his father-in-law, the other Firna shareholder, at a nominal value of US$1.
Mr Hanafi told the court yesterday he never suggested that the church do this - a move that would essentially nullify the convertibility portion of the bond issue. He also testified that he had never seen that letter before.
DPP Tan then produced an e-mail from CHC former finance manager and former board member Serina Wee to Mr Hanafi, which attached the said letter. DPP Tan then put it to him: "It shows you already had sight, you already knew the content of this letter. So why did you tell us earlier that you had never seen this letter, never requested this letter, do not know the contents of this letter?"
Mr Hanafi's explanation was that the e-mail, with the attachment, was sent some time after the letter was dated. As for the money that he claimed to be his, Mr Hanafi told the court that Ultimate Assets - his company which took over the management of Sun Ho's music career from Xtron Productions in 2008 - had loaned US$7 million to Firna. (Blogger's note: so means you got see la)
He said the money raised from the Firna bond issue would "pay back all the (US$)7 million (equivalent to about S$11 million then) that (Ultimate Assets) lent to Firna".
Thus, he claimed, the money was his, and he could do with it as he liked. "It's my money . . . and if I want to use the money for whatever reason, it's my money," he said.
DPP Tan then produced an e-mail from Wee to CHC deputy senior pastor Tan Ye Peng and former CHC board member Chew Eng Han on the said funds. In it, she laid out "a summary of what Wahju owes us" and noted that there had been "quite a few transfers out from the account . . . I presume these are for his (Mr Hanafi's) personal things . . . He also used the account to trade in (certain) shares . . . Do I treat the investment gains (on the share transactions) as belonging to us or his personal because, technically, he is using our money?"
Chew replied: "His trading gains should be his, and similarly any losses."
To which, Wee responded: "Just that he used our money to trade."
Asked if Wee had been correct in saying it was the church's money, Mr Hanafi replied: "Definitely not. At the end of the day, we all know that I was the one who paid back all this bond money to the church, and I have returned everything in my capacity. So it's not money that came out from Serina or money that came out from Pastor Tan or money that came out from Chew Eng Han . . . It's my money."
It is the prosecution's case that $11.4 million of CHC's building funds - purportedly invested in a fund managed by Chew's AMAC Capital Partners - was instead round-tripped to redeem $11 million in "sham" bonds issued by Firna to CHC. It claims this was done by AMAC lending the monies to Ultimate Assets, which in turn lent the monies to Firna, which then purported to redeem the Firna bonds.
The hearing continues today.
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