Six accused held key positions: prosecution - City Harvest trial (BT: 26th Aug 2014)

This helped facilitate misuse of church's building fund money

SEVERAL of the key positions in City Harvest Church's management board, committees and in church-linked entity, Xtron Productions, were filled by founder Kong Hee and his five co-accused and this helped facilitate the misuse of the church's building fund monies, alleged the prosecution.

One of Kong's key defence points was that for proposals made to the church or to Xtron, the board members and Xtron directors were the ones who ultimately approved them.

In a move to refute this, prosecutor Christopher Ong on Monday pointed out that from 2006 to 2008, the six accused held positions either on the management board, investment committee or audit committee.

Together with fellow accused John Lam and Serina Wee, Chew Eng Han was in the church's finance committee from January to September 2006.

The finance committee, later renamed investment committee, was chaired by co-accused Tan Ye Peng, supported by Chew, Lam and Wee.

Then from July 2007, Lam took over from Tan Ye Peng, while co-accused Sharon Tan was the secretary.

The court was also told that in 2007, Lam, Sharon Tan and Tan Ye Peng were in the church's audit committee, which worked with auditors from Baker Tilly.

Kong, himself, was president of the church and a board member.

Pointing to an e-mail exchange sent in October 2007 between Lam, Wee and Chew, Mr Ong questioned the discussion on whether certain information should not be disclosed to two other members of the investment committee - Charlie Lay and Martin Ong.

Stating he was not included in the e-mail, Kong said he did not want to speculate.

Mr Ong also noted that Kong had nominated several people, including Lam and Chew to be directors of Xtron.

Kong explained that he nominated them as they understood the vision of the Crossover Project, which aimed to evangelise through singer Sun Ho's secular music.

Mr Ong also tried to poke holes in another of Kong's key defence - that the founder had obtained clearance of big and small matters from professionals like auditors and lawyers.

Previously, Kong testified that he always sought the advice of auditor Foong Daw Ching on church matters and that he referred his team to the auditor as well.

But Mr Ong charged that Kong and his co-accused chose to consult Mr Foong instead of the engagement partner, Joseph Toh, from as early as 2004 as they had ulterior motives.

"I put it to you that the real reason you directed Ye Peng to go to Brother Foong instead of Joseph, the auditor, is because your practice was to use Brother Foong to test out whether the things you were planning would be able to get past the annual audit at the end of the year," said Mr Ong.

Kong denied this. "We went to Brother Foong not because Brother Foong was a pushover or he was a softer accountant and we could test the waters, push him around. Brother Foong was the founder of TFW and Baker Tilly ... We went to Brother Foong because Brother Foong was the boss."

The six church leaders are fighting allegations that they misused millions of church funds to boost the career of Ms Ho, who is Kong's wife. They allegedly did so through sham bond investments in Xtron and Firna.