IT WAS a showdown yesterday between two men who used to be friends and comrades-in-arms on the City Harvest Church board.
Chew Eng Han, who oversaw its investments, mounted a feisty examination
of former board member John Lam, who took the stand for a third day.
Both men are among six accused on trial.
Chew, 54, was asking the
questions himself as he had discharged his lawyer in May, citing a
"deep personal conviction" of the need to defend himself.
He had also abruptly quit the church in June last year over deep-seated differences.
Yesterday, he was dogged in trying to discredit Lam's testimony that
Chew, the church's former fund manager under Amac Capital Partners, had
"complete and unfettered discretion" to make investment plans. These
included the alleged sham transactions that are central to the present
trial.
Lam has maintained that he only had a piecemeal idea of what was going on.
The six persons, including church founder Kong Hee, are accused of
funnelling about $50 million of the church's building fund monies into
alleged bogus deals with events firm Xtron Productions and glass
manufacturer Firna, to bankroll the secular pop music career of Kong's
wife Ho Yeow Sun.
In the one hour that Chew had before the
hearing adjourned, he got Lam to admit he was wrong in his earlier
testimony that it was Chew's idea in 2003 to start Xtron to manage Ms
Ho's career.
Chew cited two e-mails, previously tendered in court
as evidence, that showed the idea might have come instead from deputy
senior pastor Tan Ye Peng. (me: oops)He said: "I didn't approach you, I didn't
have this grand vision of a media events company. I had a full-time job,
State Street Bank, at the time."
He asked why Lam pointed the
finger at him, despite having full access to the e-mails. Lam countered
that he was citing his "state of mind at the contemporaneous time" in
his previous answer, but later conceded that his evidence was
inaccurate.
Chew also sought to justify the investments by
arguing that the church had always had an appetite for risk since it
began investing its surplus funds in 1998 or 1999. To prove that his
financial acumen was sound, Chew recounted how he had at the time pumped
$2.2 million of church funds into one single stock - Superbowl
Holdings.
While Lam said there were "some concerns" from the
board, Chew said he "wasn't afraid" even when the stock plunged. The
church eventually made $550,000 when it sold its stock years later.
Asked separately if it was a "dishonest act" to buy junk bonds or
unrated bonds, Lam conceded it was not. Chew then cited a recent Reuters
article reporting a "newly aggressive approach" by Singapore sovereign
wealth fund GIC, investing in unrated Chinese bonds it would likely hold
to maturity.
He said: "That's what we intended for Xtron and Firna bonds, to hold (them) to maturity."
Earlier, Lam stood by what he told investigators about Kong, when
questioned by Kong's lawyer Jason Chan of his opinions. He had called
Kong "a person of great integrity, one who only thinks of the church and
not for personal gain".
Mr Chan later withdrew the question,
after prosecutors pointed out that if evidence of Kong's good character
was taken in court, the Evidence Act allowed them to call witnesses to
prove otherwise.
(me: LOL)
.......................................
Notable exchanges in court
FALSE EVIDENCE?
"I didn't approach you, I didn't have this grand vision of a media
events company. I had a full-time job, State Street Bank, at the time. I
was not into entertainment nor into concerts. I wouldn't even have the
time to think about it. So I put it to you that the evidence you have
given to the court, that it was my idea, is false."
- Chew Eng
Han to John Lam, who had earlier testified that it was the former who
came up with the idea to set up Xtron Productions to manage the secular
pop music career of church founder Kong Hee's wife Ho Yeow Sun as part
of the Crossover Project
NOVICE COUNSEL
"To (counsel) in front, when you hand out new exhibits, don't forget there's a little junior counsel here."
- Chew appealing to other defence lawyers, in a light-hearted moment yesterday, to remember that he was representing himself
IN SERVICE OF CHURCH
"Since 1987, all the demands of my life have been placed on three
things: my family, my job and the church. Since I joined City Harvest,
I've nothing but served, given my time, my demands, sometimes to the
detriment of my career and my family. I've given my money, I've not
taken any money from the church. If there's any gain, I would say those
are spiritual gains, they were gains of friendship. My core beliefs have
always been to serve."
- Lam's passionate reply when asked if he
would do anything intentionally that harms the church. Lam met Kong
Hee, who was his cell group leader then, in 1987. Lam was a founding
member when Kong founded City Harvest two years later
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