City Harvest Trial: Accused wrote of round-tripping in e-mail (ST: 30th Sept 2014)

Prosecution says this shows finance manager knew what was going on

City Harvest Church (CHC) finance manager Sharon Tan was aware of what "round-tripping" meant and had even used the term in an e-mail to her three co-accused discussing the church's finances, the court heard yesterday.

In the March 22, 2010 message referred to by the prosecution, Tan had written: "By right, if this (sic) funds is a round trip and can come back to CHC, we can cut down by one (round of fund raising)."

This was part of discussions among the four, the prosecution charged, on how to raise money for City Harvest's building fund and channel surplus generated in the process through various entities and back to the church.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Mavis Chionh said Tan had shown "clearly" in the discussion that she knew what was happening.

But Tan, 39, disagreed, later saying: "The main aim was to decrease the number of rounds of building fund campaign, and to raise as little as we can."

Tan is one of six people, including founding pastor Kong Hee, accused of misusing $50 million of church funds to boost the music career of Kong's wife, Ms Ho Yeow Sun, and covering up the misuse.

The prosecution believes that all of the accused, except Tan, channelled money from the church's building fund into sham bond investments in Xtron, which is Ms Ho's management company, and glass manufacturer Firna.

Four of them, inclduing Tan, then allegedly devised transactions to clear the sham bonds from CHC's accounts to throw auditors off the scent.

Yesterday, the March 22 e-mail was among several the prosecution cited to show how the four were trying to raise building fund money, and channel the surplus to pump into Xtron, to clear its liabilities.

In one message, Tan had written to her predecessor and co-accused Serina Wee: "Will we still be doing this 10 years later? Hahahahaha..."

Ms Chionh yesterday said this showed, among other things, that Tan was aware that the "solutions" the four were planning were simply "buying time" for Xtron, so as to "kick the problem down the road", and, in turn, give themselves breathing space to find more ways to channel yet more church funds into the firm.

Tan disagreed, calling it a matter of "scenario planning".

The prosecution finished cross-examining Tan yesterday.

The trial continues today, with her lawyer, Senior Counsel Kannan Ramesh, expected to continue cross-examining her.