Prosecution: Kong Hee had the final say (BT: 21st Aug 2014)

[SINGAPORE] City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee was the ultimate authority when it came to the financing of the Crossover Project through the various bond subscriptions made by the church from 2006 to 2008, alleged the prosecution, as it continued to grill the accused for a second day.

Prosecutor Christopher Ong charged that Kong, 49, had lied to authorities and in court, when the church leader was in reality the one who had the final say as to the church's initial bond subscription with Xtron Productions and another agreement with glassware manufacturer, Firna.

The bond suscriptions that the prosecution described as "sham", were meant to raise funds for the Crossover Project, which aimed to evangelise through singer Sun Ho's secular music.

Referring to co-accused John Lam's testimony, Mr Ong pointed out that Kong was singled out as the one who decided on how much and where the money was to come from when it came to the financing of the Crossover Project.

Kong replied that it was wrong to say his views superseded that of the Xtron directors.

"Your Honour, I think Mr Lam had too high an estimation of my authority and my ability to persuade the Xtron directors." (wait, am i reading this right? isn't Lam an Xtron director? so pst kong is saying that lam had too high estimation of pst kong's ability to persuade lam?)

The court later heard from the prosecution that the statements taken by authorities of co-accused Serina Wee, Tan Ye Peng and Chew Eng Han, showed that Xtron directors were left out of decision-making processes.

Kong rejected this claim.

E-mail from accused Serina Wee to Kong dated August 2006 and May 2007 were raised in court and showed Wee giving updates on the cashflows of Xtron and the church.

This prompted Mr Ong to question the need for Wee to do so, when Kong was only in charge of budgeting for his wife, Ms Ho's album in the United States, for the US Crossover.

Kong explained that there was a need for him to know how much money Xtron would have so that he can proceed with negotiations with the Americans.

Throughout the trial, Kong stressed that the Xtron directors were the ones giving the ultimate approval for decisions prosposed by him or the team.

He has also maintained that he is not bond-savvy and that he left Chew and Tan to handle the technicalities of the bond transactions.

But the prosecution tried to prove otherwise, citing the content of an e-mail dated July 28, 2008, which detailed the flow of the church's building fund to buy Xtron and Firna bonds to finance the Crossover Project.

It also touched on the move by former Xtron director, Wahju Hanafi, to support the Crossover Project independently.

Kong and five deputies face allegations of misusing millions of church funds through sham bond investments, to boost the music career of Ms Ho. Four of the six also face charges of round-tripping the monies to cover up the misuse.