The Deputy Public Prosecutor,
Christopher Ong, questioned Serina Wee for the final time today. She
will be back to the dock and Sun Ho will be on the witness stand
tomorrow. We shall see whether Sun will dogmatically hold on to her
crossover success.
The court requested Eng Han to give an estimate of how long will he take for Sun Ho’s EIC.
“Your Honour, but I would say that for Sun Ho, I’m not sure about the extent of information that she would be revealing. So it’s really a rough estimate, your Honour. It could end up two hours or three hours or maybe three and a half hour” said Chew.
Recount of Serina’s cross-examination on May 18.
Let’s see the summarized put statements.
DPP: Ms Wee, I put it to you that you knew that the Building Fund was a restricted fund that could not simply be used to finance Sun Ho’s music career outright.
Serina: I agree, your Honour.
DPP: I put it to you that nevertheless you knowingly conspired with Kong Hee, Ye Peng and John Lam to cause CHC and Xtron to enter into the first CHC Xtron BSA which purported to be a bond agreement to lend $13m from CHC to Xtron but which was actually a sham transaction.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree. Eng Han was the one that came up with the idea, and I assisted in the execution. But the bonds is not a sham. There are real obligations and real returns.
DPP: I put it to you that you knew this sham transaction had the sole purpose of channeling from CHC’s BF to Xtron to pay for the expenses of Sun Ho’s music career.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree that they’re a sham, and, yes, the purpose is to fund the music career but also it is for returns for CHC.
DPP: I put it to you that you were able to cause this sham transaction to take place because you, Kong Hee, Ye Peng and Eng Han and John control and manipulated the decision making processes in both CHC and Xtron leading to the sham transaction.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree. Pastor Kong, Pastor Tan, Eng Han, John and myself do not control Xtron. The ultimate control lies with the Xtron directors.
DPP: I put it to you that there was never any intention for the first CHC Xtron BSA sham transaction to create genuine legal obligations.
Serina: You Honour, I disagree that there was no intention to create genuine legal obligations because you can see this in all our planning, because there is real obligations, and that’s why there’s planning for Xtron to fulfill them.
DPP: I put it to you that by causing City Harvest to enter into the sham bond transactions with Xtron, you and your bond transaction co-accused did conspire to commit criminal breach of trust by dishonestly misappropriating the sum of $13m for the unauthorized purpose of funding Sun Ho’s music career as alleged in the first and second charges against you.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree. The bonds were a investment by the church; it’s not a misappropriation of the Building Fund.
DPP: I put it to you that in doing so you intended to cause wrongful loss to the City Harvest Building Fund.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree. I never intend to cause any loss to the church.
DPP: I put it to you that you subsequently knowingly conspired with Kong Hee, Ye Peng, Eng Han and John Lam to cause Firna to enter into the CHC Firna bond BSA which purported to be a bond agreement but which was actually a sham transaction.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree that the Firna bonds are a sham transaction. There are real obligations, with real returns.
DPP: I put it to you that this sham transaction had the purpose of channeling funds from CHC’s Building Fund to Firna to pay for the expenses of Sun Ho’s music career and to provide funds for Wahju’s personal use.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree. This was a investment by the church to get returns from Firna. And, yes, it was used for Wahju, who, via his return of shareholders loans, he pledged his own monies to fund Sun’s music album.
DPP: I put it to you that you and your sham bond co-accused were able to cause this sham transaction to take place because you and your sham bond co-accused had secured Wahju’s agreement to be a conduit for the Building Fund to be channeled.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree that Wahju is a conduit. The monies, after Firna return its shareholder loan, they remain Wahju’s and Wahju had the full control of it, and there were times that he didn’t follow our instructions.
DPP: I put it to you that there was never any intention for this sham Firna bond transaction to create genuine legal obligations.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree there’s no intention to create genuine legal obligations because there’s a lot of planning involved for the album proceeds to enable Wahju and Firna to repay the bonds.
DPP: I put it to you that by causing City Harvest to enter into the sham bond transaction with Firna you and your bond transaction co-accused have conspired to commit criminal breach of trust of City Harvest Building Fund by dishonestly misappropriating the sum of $11million for the unauthorized purpose of funding Sun Ho’s music career as alleged in the third charges again you.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree that it’s CBT, because we had consulted Mr Foong about it. The lawyers are aware of the transactions. The board is aware.
DPP: I put it to you that in doing so you intended to cause wrongful loss to CHC’s Building Fund.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree. There’s no intention to cause loss and neither is there loss to the Building Fund. there were returns for this investment.
DPP: I put it to you that you lied to CHC’s auditors, lawyers and also to this court that these sham bond transaction, both the first Xtron BSA and the Firna bonds, were a genuine investment.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree that I lied. These to me are true investments, and there are real returns.
DPP: I put it to you that at the time of the first Xtron BSA and the Firna bonds the Building Fund was entrusted to Kong Hee, Ye Peng and John Lam in their capacity as CHC Board members and agents of the church.
Serina: Your Honour, I agree partially. They form part of the whole CHC board and it’s the board that is entrusted.
DPP: Ms Wee, I put it to you that you knew you were not allowed to use funds from the Church Building Fund and General Fund for the purpose of creating the false appearance that the Xtron and Firna bonds had been redeemed by Xtron and Firna.
Serina: Your Honour, I agree that this something I know, but I don’t know if the general fund it didn’t ever cross my mind because it is not a false appearance that we were trying to create.
DPP: I put it to you that in 2009, when Mr Sim started asking questions about the Xtron and Firna bonds, you, Ye Peng, Eng Han and Sharon, the round-tripping accused persons, started planning to remove the bonds from City Harvest books because you did not want any audit queries to result in the sham nature of the bonds being exposed.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree. Firstly, to me, the bonds are not sham, and the only reason that the church board wanted to redeem the bonds early is because of the valuation issue.
DPP: I put it to you that together with your round-tripping accused persons you planned and finalized the series of round-tripping transactions that were subsequently used to create the false appearance that Xtron and Firna had redeemed their bonds.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree that there is a false appearance. The bonds are really redeemed; the monies are back to the church, and with all the returns.
DPP: I put it to you that the characterization of the sum of the transactions in the round-tripping transactions as advance rental under the ALRA, or as SOF investment, were, in fact, deceptions intended to hide the true purpose of those transactions, which was to facilitate your round-tripping scheme.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree that they are deceptions. The ALRA is a real advance rental with real obligations for Xtron to fulfill. The SOF is a real investment with real returns.
DPP: In fact, I put it to you the real purpose of the purported SOF investments was to channel funds to Firna to enable the CHC Firna bonds to be redeemed.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree. I do know that one of the purposes of the SOF is to enable the redemption, but it is also a real investment for returns.
DPP: I put it to you that the purported SOF investments were never intended to create genuine legal obligations between CHC and AMAC. Just to be clear, it was never the intention of you and your round-tripping co-accused persons.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree.
DPP: I put it to you that under the guise of these purported SOF investments, you and your round-tripping co-accused persons did conspire to commit criminal breach of trust of CHC’s funds by dishonestly misappropriating the sum of $11.4m for the unauthorized purpose of generating the false appearance that the Firna bonds had been redeemed as alleged in the fourth and fifth charges against you.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree that there is a conspiring to commit CBT. The Firna bonds were really redeemed, and the return paid.
DPP: I put it to you that you and your round-tripping co-accused persons did also conspire to falsify CHC accounts by causing the two purported SOF investments to be entered as investments in CHC’s books when they were actually shams with the intent to defraud CHC auditors, as alleged in the 7th and 8th charge against you.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree. The SOF were recorded according to their true nature, which is the investment.
DPP: I put it to you that you and your round-tripping co-accused persons had intended that the purported SOF investments would be recorded as investments in CHC’s books despite being sham and that they were consequently thus entered into the books by Lai Baoting on Sharon Tan’s instructions.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree. They are not shams, and they are recorded according to their true nature, which is a investment.
DPP: I put it to you that as part of the round-tripping scheme you and your round-tripping co-accused persons also caused CHC to enter into the sham advance rental licensing agreement, or ARLA.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree that the advance rental is a sham. There are real obligations by Xtron to fulfill, and that’s why we were planning how Xtron could do that.
DPP: I put it to you that you and your round-tripping co-accused persons never intended that the ARLA would create genuine legal obligations between CHC and Xtron.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree. If there is no intention to create genuine legal obligations, we wouldn’t even be planning how Xtron can fulfill its obligations to bid for the property.
DPP: I put it to you that you and your round-tripping co-accused persons created the false impression that the ALRA was intended for CHC to fund Xtron to source for a property when it was really just a pretext to enable the Xtron and Firna bonds to be cleared from CHC’s book.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree. The ALRA has two purposes, which is for interim bond redemption, as well as for the purposes of the bid.
DPP: I put it to you that a sum of $15m paid out from CHC’s BF under the ARLA was for the real purpose of channeling funds to enable the purported SOF transactions to be redeemed.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree. The $15m is real advance rentals paid out for which Xtron needs to fulfill this obligations.
DPP: I put it to you that under the guise of the ARLA, you and your round-tripping co-accused persons did conspire to commit criminal breach of trust of City Harvest Building Fund by dishonestly misappropriating this sum of $15m for the unauthorized purpose of generating the false appearance that the Firna bonds had been redeemed, as alleged in the 6th charge against you.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree there’s a conspiracies to commit CBT. The bonds are really redeemed with the returns paid, and all these transactions, in my understanding, it was approved by the board.
DPP: I put it to you that you and your round-tripping co-accused persons also cause $21.5m in Xtron bonds to be set off against the purported advance rental under the ALRA, when this was a sham to enable the Xtron bonds to be cleared from CHC’s books.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree that this a sham. This was checked with the auditors; they know this very clearly.
DPP: I put it to you that in doing so you and your round-tripping co-accused did conspire to falsify CHC’s accounts by causing this set-off to be entered as a redemption of Xtron bonds in CHC’s books when it was a sham with the intent to defraud CHC’s auditors. [That was in relation to the 9th charge.]
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree that it is a sham. The auditors were checked with.
DPP: In particular, I put it to you that you and your round-tripping co-accused persons intended that the purported set-off would be recorded as redemption of Xtron bonds in CHC’s books despite being a sham and that it was consequently thus entered into the books by Lai Baoting on Sharon’s instructions.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree.
DPP: My last put. I put it to you that you and your round-tripping co-accused persons also conspired to falsify CHC’s accounts by causing the $15m paid out from CHC’s Building Fund under the ARLA to be recorded as advance rental when it was really a sham with intent to defraud the auditors as alleged in the 10th charge against you.
Serina: Your Honour, I disagree that it’s a sham or a falsification. It is recorded as advance rental, which is its true nature.
DPP: One last one. I put it to you that at the time of these round-tripping transactions, the Building Fund and general fund were entrusted to Tan Ye Peng in his capacity as a member of CHC’s board and an agent of the church.
Serina: Your Honour, I agree partially. Pastor Tan being one of the whole board that’s entrusted.
DPP: Your Honour, that’s all I have.
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