Kong Hee had asked for ‘unrealistic’ projection of low album sales: Serina Wee (Today: 17 April 2015)

SINGAPORE — American accountants had expected City Harvest Church co-founder and pop singer Ho Yeow Sun’s debut English album to sell nearly 1.5 million copies. But even so, her team in Singapore projected and planned for scenarios in which as few as 100,000 copies were sold. 

Former church accountant Serina Wee crunched the numbers and told deputy senior pastor Tan Ye Peng in Feb 2008, that it would take 70 to 116 years to pay back expenses for the album should only 100,000 copies be sold.

This was an “unrealistic scenario”, but she had worked it out because church co-founder and Ms Ho’s husband Kong Hee wanted to know, Wee told the court today (April 17), her second day on the witness stand.

The last of the six accused church leaders to testify in the long-running trial, Wee faces 10 charges of criminal breach of trust and falsification of accounts. The six accused – Kong, Tan, Wee, former finance manager Sharon Tan, former board member John Lam and former investment manager Chew Eng Han – allegedly misused S$24 million of the church’s building fund on Ms Ho’s pop music career via sham bond investments, and misappropriated another S$26.6 million to cover up the first amount.

The accused persons have testified that low album sales projections were part of scenario planning, and not because they had expected to lose money. The sale of 1.5 million copies, as projected by American accountants, would have enabled Ms Ho’s management company Xtron Productions to redeem S$13 million in bonds it had issued to the church, Wee said. 

In the Feb 2008 email, Wee had also suggested telling the boards of City Harvest and Xtron more about the Crossover’s potential returns and risks, in light of the growing investment required. This showed she did not conspire with others to hide information from the church board, said Wee.

Prosecutors have charged that the Xtron bonds were a sham due to the lack of prior negotiations between both sides, but Wee maintained it was a genuine investment as the church would earn interest and the Xtron directors had accepted the terms.

The accused also relied on Mr Foong Daw Ching, managing partner of the church’s audit firm and Kong’s friend, for advice, said Wee. Mr Foong – a prosecution witness in Sept 2013 who distanced himself from specific advice he supposedly gave to the accused persons – did not object to the church investing its building fund for the purpose of funding Ms Ho’s album as long as it reaped returns, she added.