Auditor Baker Tilly 'knew about sham deals' (ST: 7 Feb 2014)

CITY Harvest Church's auditor Baker Tilly TFW knew about the supposedly sham deals made using church money, looked into them and approved the books in the end.

What is more, the church's founder Kong Hee and five others accused of misusing about $50 million of church funds had been advised by Mr Foong Daw Ching, the firm's managing partner at the time, on the transactions. These were the twin lines of defence put up yesterday by Mr Kannan Ramesh, a lawyer representing church finance manager Sharon Tan.

In the more than six hours spent questioning prosecution witness and Baker Tilly audit manager Foong Ai Fang, Mr Ramesh referred to a stream of new and old documents to make his case that the accused had been upfront with auditors about the use of church money.

One pencilled note in the firm's working papers seemed to indicate that it had received a copy of a bond contract - allegedly one of the bogus deals - five days after it was signed.

Another note on a Baker Tilly document related to the bonds indicated that AMAC Capital Partners was the church's investment manager. Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Kiat Pheng objected and pointed out that the note did not specify if AMAC, which had bought the bonds, invested on the church's behalf or for itself.

Mr Ramesh also pointed to documents that showed how several of the accused had consulted Mr Foong - Ms Foong's brother - about the deals. When Mr Ramesh put to her that "Mr Foong must have spoken to you" about the talks, she said: "No." Mr Ramesh also noted that while Baker Tilly auditor Sim Guan Seng, who led the church's audits for the periods when the deals took place, raised numerous concerns about them, he approved the church's accounts.

Mr Sim said last week that he had not seen many documents related to the deals shown to him by the prosecution during the ongoing trial. He said these would have troubled him. The defence said some of the information had existed in the firm's archives.