SINGAPORE: Investments that City Harvest Church's
former fund manager structured were in line with common practices in the
financial market, claimed Chew Eng Han on Wednesday (Jan 28), as he
took the stand for the third day.
Chew is among six church leaders accused of misusing church funds to boost the career of Sun Ho, who is the wife of church founder Kong Hee. The leaders are believed to have made sham bond investments in two companies, and then covered them up through 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.
Chew said when he suggested a series of loans to redeem the bonds, he never thought there was anything illegal. He added that the term "round-tripping" was new to him.
After he did research, he realised it was an acceptable term to IRAS, he said, because there is legitimate round-tripping.
Said Chew: "If we accept the word 'round-tripping' as money leaving the owner and going one round and coming back to the same owner of the money - and if that was the intention of the whole redemption of Firna bonds - the fact that money goes one round means that there can be no loss to the owner of the money."
He also said some areas questioned by the prosecution were within industry practice, which included "working interest rates backwards" and not revealing the individual breakdown of investments. Chew also said he never thought it was wrong for the church to fund the Crossover Project, as it is the church's way of evangelising through Ms Ho's secular pop music.
Chew is among six church leaders accused of misusing church funds to boost the career of Sun Ho, who is the wife of church founder Kong Hee. The leaders are believed to have made sham bond investments in two companies, and then covered them up through 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.
Chew said when he suggested a series of loans to redeem the bonds, he never thought there was anything illegal. He added that the term "round-tripping" was new to him.
After he did research, he realised it was an acceptable term to IRAS, he said, because there is legitimate round-tripping.
Said Chew: "If we accept the word 'round-tripping' as money leaving the owner and going one round and coming back to the same owner of the money - and if that was the intention of the whole redemption of Firna bonds - the fact that money goes one round means that there can be no loss to the owner of the money."
He also said some areas questioned by the prosecution were within industry practice, which included "working interest rates backwards" and not revealing the individual breakdown of investments. Chew also said he never thought it was wrong for the church to fund the Crossover Project, as it is the church's way of evangelising through Ms Ho's secular pop music.
No comments:
Post a Comment