Rebutting criticism from defence lawyers on Tuesday that its case was piecemeal and “cut and paste”, Ms Chionh reiterated the prosecution’s stand that church-building funds were used for sham investments designed by the accused to conceal the diversion of money for church co-founder Ho Yeow Sun’s secular music career, known as the Crossover Project.
The accused, who include Ms Ho’s husband and church co-founder Kong Hee, are charged with misusing S$24 million for sham bond investments and another S$26.6 million to cover up the first amount. This happened following the decision made in 2004 for Ms Ho to enter the United States market and the financial demands of producing music albums, said the prosecution.
Evidence shows the accused — Serina Wee, Tan Ye Peng and Chew Eng Han — planning for audio-visual company Xtron Productions to issue bonds, despite not having any official capacity in the firm, Ms Chionh said. They knew Xtron could not redeem the bonds and also discussed use of the proceeds from the bonds.
Emails also show that the other company that issued bonds to the church, Indonesia-based PT The First National Glassware, was but a conduit for transactions, added Ms Chionh. As for the “round-tripping” transactions involving the S$26.6 million, the accused fed external auditors “a pack of lies”, she charged. Auditors were told an agreement in which the church paid Xtron rentals in advance was genuine, but the accused were aware that, after using the funds to redeem bonds purchased earlier, nothing would be left for Xtron to seek a new building for use by the church, she said.
The defence had argued that the accused were honest and transparent with auditors. Kong’s deputy Tan Ye Peng, for instance, had sent a document to auditor Foong Daw Ching in 2008 detailing the church’s relationship with, and investment in, Xtron.
However, this disclosure did not happen in a vacuum, countered Ms Chionh. City Harvest’s board had grown worried after news of Ren Ci Hospital’s former chief executive Ming Yi being hauled to court and its auditors implicating their client.
She also disagreed with points raised yesterday by Wee’s lawyer, Senior Counsel Andre Maniam, that church funds had been used for church purposes and that, even if the accused had knowledge of wrong use of funds, this did not mean they had been dishonest. Dishonesty is a requisite for criminal breach of trust, among the charges faced by the accused.
Building funds are meant for building-related purposes and investments as allowed by the church’s constitution, Ms Chionh added. She brought up the recent case of former Maris Stella High School principal Anthony Tan Kim Hock’s misappropriation of the school’s chapel building fund. The High Court did not accept that since the school and Champagnat House, residence of the Marist Brothers here, were in essence owned by the Marist Brothers, it was reasonable for the former principal to think he could use the chapel-building fund for the renovation of Champagnat House.
But Mr Maniam said the case is different, as Champagnat House and the school are separate entities.
On the defence arguing on Tuesday that Tan, Kong and former board member John Lam could not be said to have dominion over church funds as the church board had collective dominion, the prosecution argued that they had a share of dominion.
Chief District Judge See Kee Oon is expected to rule on May 5 whether the defence needs to be called.
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