City Harvest leaders have case to answer, says judge (CNA: 5th May 2014)

SINGAPORE: The six accused leaders of City Harvest Church have a case to answer, Chief District Judge See Kee Oon decided on Monday.

The judge said there is sufficient evidence to support each and every element of the charges faced by the accused.

The accused -- church co-founder Kong Hee, Tan Ye Peng, John Lam, Chew Eng Han, Serina Wee and Sharon Tan -- face charges of criminal breach of trust and falsification of accounts. They allegedly misused S$24 million of church building funds for sham bond investments, and another S$26.6 million to cover up the first amount.

All six accused church leaders have decided to give evidence in their defence.

Judge See noted on Monday that oral evidence given by several prosecution witnesses was at odds with prosecution's case "on many occasions".

On those occasions, he added, the prosecution had produced documents which ran counter to the testimonies of the witnesses.

But the judge said what matters is that the witnesses were given an opportunity to explain the contents of documents that seem, on the surface, to undermine their oral evidence.

He said based on the evidence shown to the court, it has been suggested that the investments were not genuine.

The defence had argued that the movement of funds from the church's accounts to other companies was part of "refinancing".

But Judge See said there is evidence, equally, to show that the transactions were made to create a false impression that the church's purported investments were redeemed.

So, the court is of the view that the church's money could have been misappropriated.

The judge also found that there might have been an attempt to cover up the alleged misuse of the funds.

The trial will resume with the defence presenting its case on 14 July.