Chew and five other church leaders, including founder Kong Hee, are on trial for misusing millions of dollars in church funds to advance the pop music career of Kong’s wife, Ms Ho Yeow Sun.
The prosecution believes S$24 million in church building funds were used to buy sham bonds in two companies, including Xtron Productions, which used to manage Ms Ho. Another S$26.6 million was then allegedly circulated through complex transactions to cover up the first sum.
Citing an email Chew sent in December 2006, Deputy Public Prosecutor Christopher Ong argued that Chew was instrumental in disguising the sham transactions as legitimate so as to fend off auditors.
In the email, Chew had proposed, among other things, for Xtron to have a separate physical office and a full-time chief executive, so “all these transactions (will) look real and legitimate”.
But Chew told the court that he was only being mindful of “baseless accusations” that might have arisen over how the church’s money was being used to benefit Kong and Ms Ho, especially after church member Roland Poon fired such allegations in 2003.
“Your Honour, I’m a man of substance. I don’t believe in appearance. But I do believe as well that if you project the wrong appearance, it just invites false accusations. Simple as that,” he said.
Chew maintained that his ultimate interest was in preserving the Crossover Project, which sought to evangelise through Ms Ho’s music.
When DPP Ong pointed out another email in which Chew had suggested condensing the list of investments shared with the church’s investment committee, Chew said he had preferred to keep details about the Xtron bonds from a particular committee member in order not to “invite unnecessary trouble or another Roland Poon crisis”.
No comments:
Post a Comment