Indeed, most of it was recorded in the next seven months under noted American music manager Johnny Wright — who had worked with artistes such as Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears — and was slated for a “major launch” in August 2010.
But with the launch of the Commercial Affairs Department’s probe into church-related transactions in May 2010, Ms Ho was summoned back to Singapore, scuppering the album’s release.
Ms Ho’s husband and City Harvest Church co-founder Kong Hee recounted for the first time yesterday why the album was never released, in the criminal trial against him and five other church leaders for misusing church funds to further his wife’s career.
Its failure to launch meant the work and money invested in the project — known as the church’s Crossover Project, which aimed to use pop music to reach out to non-Christians — went “down the drain” with no possibility of recovering the funds, Kong told the court on his fourth day on the witness stand. A church member, Indonesian businessman Wahju Hanafi, and his family had to make good the losses, Kong said.
The court yesterday heard that after Ms Ho recovered from abdominal adhesions that pushed back her initial targeted album release in 2009, she went on to record a popular dance single, Fancy Free. Many promotional activities had also been lined up for her album, including appearances on television programmes such as Gossip Girl, CSI and Dancing With The Stars, as well as features in magazines such as Vogue and Marie Claire.
To fund Ms Ho’s career, the church put S$24 million into bonds from two companies — her Singapore management company Xtron Productions and Mr Hanafi’s glassware firm PT The First National Glassware (Firna).
The defence argues that the investments are genuine, while the prosecution says the bonds were sham — with no due diligence done before the transactions were entered into — and that another S$26.6 million was misused to cover up the first amount.
Kong yesterday also said that when lawyer Jimmy Yim and a colleague from law firm Drew and Napier met him and his co-accused shortly after investigations had begun, he was “shaken to the core” to hear them say he was negligent and had done wrong and “should just tell the truth and come clean”. Though he was overseas for extended periods from 2006, Kong said he had always told his team to check with lawyers and auditors on transactions. “I was shocked because, all this while, we have relied on professionals to advise us, and now, one of the key professionals is saying we have done wrong,” he said, adding that he had been assured that the transactions were legal.
The church’s former fund manager Chew Eng Han, who is without a lawyer, continues to cross-examine Kong today.
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