SINGAPORE: The prosecution wrapped up its
cross-examination of City Harvest Church (CHC) finance manager Sharon
Tan on Monday (Sep 29), reiterating its case that she had conspired with
other leaders to plan and execute a series of "round-tripping
transactions".
Tan, who took the stand for the 12th day, is one of six leaders charged with misusing millions of dollars of church funds to boost the career of singer Sun Ho, the wife of CHC founder Kong Hee. They are accused of doing so through sham bond investments in two companies, Xtron and Firna, and then covering them up through a series of what the prosecution described as "round-tripping transactions".
These transactions would create the false impression that the sham bonds had been redeemed when the redemption was actually financed using the church's funds, the prosecution has charged.
On Monday, the prosecution showed the court an email thread dated November 2009 in which Tan and her co-accused, Chew Eng Han and Tan Ye Peng, discussed how much money the church needed to raise to rent space at Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre.
In what the accused called "scenario planning", S$100 million was budgeted for the church to pay rental for the next 10 years to production company Xtron. However, Tan pointed out that the church would need to raise S$52.4 million to "cover" Xtron's "deficit".
This was because the church had earlier paid Xtron a huge amount as advance rental for it to secure premises for church services and activities. Tan said that part of the advance rental had already been spent on various transactions, including S$11.4 million in bonds by glassware manufacturer Firna.
She then proposed that the deficit be raised via the church's "Arise & Build" fund-raising campaigns. She also suggested that the church makes more payments to Xtron, for various services such as event management. Tan clarified in court that it was a "worst-case scenario planning", with the assumption that Xtron did not generate any income from producing Sun Ho's album.
'SCENARIO PLANNING' CLAIM, NOT A MAGIC WAND: PROSECUTOR
Chief Prosecutor Mavis Chionh however, said that the assumption was not stated in the email and that it was "funny" that Tan thought "waving the words 'scenario planning' around is like a magic wand that can somehow wave away all this incriminating information here".
Ms Chionh said the emails reveal that Tan was intent on making sure that the church makes payments to Xtron to "cover up the hole" or the deficit. She pointed to a subsequent email dated December 2009 from Tan to co-accused Serina Wee, who was handling the Xtron accounts then.
Tan told Wee that having redone the calculations, the deficit for the rental was S$44 million and not S$52.4 million. She had also written: "Will we still be doing this 10 years later???? Hahahahaha ..."
The prosecution alleges that "this" refers to finding ways and "doing scenario planning" to cover Xtron's deficit. However, Tan told the court that she was referring to Xtron working closely with the church to plan its cash flow.
Ms Chionh said that Tan knew the proposals to cover the deficit was just to buy time for Xtron so that she could "kick the problem down the road" and gain herself more time to "find more solutions to channel more of the church's funds to Xtron".
Ms Chionh also charged that Tan and Wee as well as Chew Eng Han and Tan Ye Peng were constantly working on ways to channel church monies to Xtron to make sure it could meet its liabilities. Following the end of the prosecution's cross-examination of Tan, her lawyer, Senior Counsel Kannan Ramesh will continue his re-examination on Tuesday.
Tan, who took the stand for the 12th day, is one of six leaders charged with misusing millions of dollars of church funds to boost the career of singer Sun Ho, the wife of CHC founder Kong Hee. They are accused of doing so through sham bond investments in two companies, Xtron and Firna, and then covering them up through a series of what the prosecution described as "round-tripping transactions".
These transactions would create the false impression that the sham bonds had been redeemed when the redemption was actually financed using the church's funds, the prosecution has charged.
On Monday, the prosecution showed the court an email thread dated November 2009 in which Tan and her co-accused, Chew Eng Han and Tan Ye Peng, discussed how much money the church needed to raise to rent space at Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre.
In what the accused called "scenario planning", S$100 million was budgeted for the church to pay rental for the next 10 years to production company Xtron. However, Tan pointed out that the church would need to raise S$52.4 million to "cover" Xtron's "deficit".
This was because the church had earlier paid Xtron a huge amount as advance rental for it to secure premises for church services and activities. Tan said that part of the advance rental had already been spent on various transactions, including S$11.4 million in bonds by glassware manufacturer Firna.
She then proposed that the deficit be raised via the church's "Arise & Build" fund-raising campaigns. She also suggested that the church makes more payments to Xtron, for various services such as event management. Tan clarified in court that it was a "worst-case scenario planning", with the assumption that Xtron did not generate any income from producing Sun Ho's album.
'SCENARIO PLANNING' CLAIM, NOT A MAGIC WAND: PROSECUTOR
Chief Prosecutor Mavis Chionh however, said that the assumption was not stated in the email and that it was "funny" that Tan thought "waving the words 'scenario planning' around is like a magic wand that can somehow wave away all this incriminating information here".
Ms Chionh said the emails reveal that Tan was intent on making sure that the church makes payments to Xtron to "cover up the hole" or the deficit. She pointed to a subsequent email dated December 2009 from Tan to co-accused Serina Wee, who was handling the Xtron accounts then.
Tan told Wee that having redone the calculations, the deficit for the rental was S$44 million and not S$52.4 million. She had also written: "Will we still be doing this 10 years later???? Hahahahaha ..."
The prosecution alleges that "this" refers to finding ways and "doing scenario planning" to cover Xtron's deficit. However, Tan told the court that she was referring to Xtron working closely with the church to plan its cash flow.
Ms Chionh said that Tan knew the proposals to cover the deficit was just to buy time for Xtron so that she could "kick the problem down the road" and gain herself more time to "find more solutions to channel more of the church's funds to Xtron".
Ms Chionh also charged that Tan and Wee as well as Chew Eng Han and Tan Ye Peng were constantly working on ways to channel church monies to Xtron to make sure it could meet its liabilities. Following the end of the prosecution's cross-examination of Tan, her lawyer, Senior Counsel Kannan Ramesh will continue his re-examination on Tuesday.
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