How Advante (Serina Wee’s company) was started?
DPP brought up an email (dated 23 Aug 2007) as an evidence to support
his argument. This is an email between Serina and Ye Peng.
The content of the email is “Can we talk to Pst Kong about getting you to start a company doing accounting services.”
And Serina replies is “I talked to him already. He’s ok.”
<<…some questions related to this email to build up DPP case…>>
Kong said that he was the senior pastor of the church and Serina should let him know of her visions and dreams.
DPP: “If this was a case of Serina wanting to pursue her dreams and
visions, do you have any idea why what Ye Peng asked her was: “Can we
talk to Past Kong about getting you to start a company.” Serina Wee’s
own idea to start a company, and that she’s being asked to start a
company.
Kong: “Your Honour, I really don’t know why Pastor Tan wrote the way
he did, but I certainly did not ask her to start her own company.”
DPP brought up another email dated before 23 Aug 2007. In this
email Serina Wee said to Pastor Tan that she has come up with a plan for
a new accounting company that she felt they should set up. She goes on
explaining her reason of setting up Advante.
“We need to do this is because we have been handling the accounts of
the various companies and organisations and it doesn”t make sense that
I’m under Xtron’s payroll fully. ….”
The email goes on… she says that will also be economies of scale, better career path for staff, then she says:
“the new company will handle the following accounts and will charge
them the folloing monthly retainer. Xtron, Attributes, CHEC, Business
Breakthrough, City Care, Urban Entertaintment…..”
DPP: “Do you have any idea why she is running through this plan with
Ye Peng and suggesting that she can check with John Lam and Eng Han?”
Kong: “Ye Peng, you Honour, was the deputy senior pastor of the
church, and she’s a member of the church and she just wanted to be
accountable to him with her suggestions. At that point in time, John
Lam was a member of the board, Eng Han could still be a member of the
board.
DPP tried to get Kong to agree with him that looking at Serina’s
email it appears that the accounting company being set up is really
intended to create a separation between the church and organizations
such as Xtron as well as to create separation even between those
organizations.
Mr Tong (Kong’s lawyer) stood up and requested DPP to clarify whose intention is he asking the witness to discuss
Kong: “Your Honour, I’m not copied on this email, but just by a
cursor reading of this email, it seems like Serina had her own vision to
start a company, and at the same time to better service some of those
entities that she mentioned in the email.
DPP brought up another email dated 8 November 2007 after Advante has
incorporated. In this email, Serina Wee is concern about Kong sending
CHC finance related emails to her and Ye Peng’s reply is they can tell
Kong don’t send to her any more then delete XPL-related emails or store
it in a hard disk.
In her last line of her email she mentioned about the Matilda case
and NKF, that’s a reference to a scandal that affected another charity
NKF.
DPP put to Kong that Advante was really another part of the plan to
hide the fact that Kong’s team were channelling church funds through
Xtron to fund the Crossover Project.
Kong: “I disagree, your Honour. Why do we need Advante to do that if that is true?”
DPP put to Kong that the reason why Advante was required is because
Serina was known to be handling both the church and Xtron accounts, it
would have made it clear that the two were related.
Kong: “I disagree, your Honour. Before Serina started Advante, to my
best knowledge, she was the church’s accountant and helping out Xtron
with its accounting department. Auditors were deaing with Serina, one
person dealing with two accounts. And they had no problem with that
before she started Advante. So if they had no problem with that, even
at that time, why would there be anything sinister now that she’s
starting Advante?
DPP referenced to another email dated December 2006. Kong sent to Eng
Han and Ye Peng about his concerns and Eng Han replied to him and
copied to Ye Peng.
In this email Eng Han proposed the following:
1. Move Xtron Staff out from CHC
2. Have a separate accountant any audit which shows the CHC and Xtron
accountant is the same is going to cast doubts on whether transactions
between CHC and Xtron are really commercial or are we just trying to
move funds between these two entities.
DPP: “Wouldn’t you agree that this proposed change by Eng Han is exactly what was going on when Advante was formed?
Kong: “Your Honour, I believe that when Eng Han wrote his proposal to
me in December 2006, Eng Han was writing from the position of having
proper corporate governance. He did mention about having a separate
accountant, which was a good suggestion. But I’m not sure if Advante
was a result of this suggestion or it was because Serina all along
wanted to have her own accounting.”
DDP: “I put it to you that you are lying when you deny that Advante
was set up to further the separation, as part of the plan to hide the
channeling of Building Fund to Xtron.”
DPP: “I put it to you that these suggestions by Mr. Chew are really
designed to create the impression of legitimacy and arm’s length
commercial transacting, when, in fact, the transactions between CHC and
Xtron were not — particularly the bonds were not legitimate or arm’s
length.
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