“Go back to launch the album” and
“Who owns the songs?”
Before we see Sun’s EIC of 19 May 2015, I think we should read Eng Han’s EIC of 26 Jan 2015.
Eng Han’s EIC of Jan 26 2015.
Eng Han said to Kong and Sun (Timeline: Between June 2010 to November 2010)
“We can win easily. The album is supposed to be almost ready. Send Sun
back, launch her album, show that the earnings are going to come in,
it’s going to bring in profits and, therefore, it’s a real investment. Nothing better than have the sales talk for us.”
Kong Hee replied to me and said, “No, the church needs Sun, Sun has to stay back.”
Sun gave me a different reply, Sun said, “No, I need to be with my husband.”
At another occasion when I asked Kong to
launch the album, his reply to me was a different reply. He
said, “because the songs were too outdated to launch.”
Then I said, “Then can’t we just spend a little bit of money and repackage the songs?” That’s when he told me, “We can’t because the songs don’t belong to us.”
That’s why in cross-examination I asked
Kong, “Who owns the songs?”
Your Honour, I’m bringing this up because
this is a CBT case. Criminal Breach of Trust, misuse of funds. And with
respect to the prosecution, I
think the prosecution needs to go into the usage of the funds, not the
structuring of the bonds. The one that spends the money, the one that
has discretion, and the one that spends the money needs to answer “where
are the songs, who owns the songs?” because if he doesn’t know, that is
an outright misuse of the money; $24million spent and he doesn’t know
who owns the songs.”
Another point in time [Timeline: After
June 2011] we were charged, I told Kong Hee, “Call Justin Hertz, the
professional that gave you all the projections. Get him to court to tell
the court that it was real business sense to launch Sun’s album, Sun
was going to be a hit.”
His reply to me was, “No, we can’t.” I asked him
why. No answer.
If Kong Hee really meant what he said in
EIC, that every dollar invested must go back to the church, and that
there was expectations for big sums of revenue to come in, then, surely,
the most logical and responsible thing for him to do is to finish up
the album and to launch it, put aside every other matters.
Recount of Sun’s EIC of May 19, 2015
Chew: Do you remember me telling you and Kong Hee to go back and launch the album?
Sun: Yes, your Honour. I remember Eng Han having that conversation with me.
Chew: Did we have hopes to make money?
Sun: Yes, your Honour. All this while,
we always believed in the commercial success of the album. And the
reason why we wanted to do the US album, your Honour, is so that when we
have commercial success of the US album, it will be tremendous for the
Crossover Project. It will bring the influence of the Crossover Project
to a global level and it will open more doors for us, including China,
to be able to preach Jesus Christ to the unsaved and also to encourage
the Christian artiste and also to engage communities to do our
humanitarian work, especially communities and countries that might not
be so friendly to Christianity.
<…. about the album sales and the meeting with S-Curve, Steve Greenberg…>
Chew: So in your talks with Jean Wyclef
and with Johnny Wright, when they talk to you about your potential,
doesn’t the issue of your past track record ever arise?
Sun: Actually, no, your Honour, because
the reason why Justin brought Wyclef on board was really because Wyclef
was successfully managed to help Shakira at that time, which is a non-US
artiste, to her height with “Hips Don’t Lie”. So we were always talking
about the commercial success of the US album in the US market.
Chew: So why didn’t you want to launch the album then in 2010?
Sun: Your Honour, I have always wanted
to launch the album and I have worked very hard for it. And by June
2010, before I came back, we were at the tail end of everything, just
waiting for S-Curve to finalise the contract. I was ready to go for the
promotion tour.
Chew: So you are saying after the CAD started investigating, you were ready to go back and launch?
Sun: No, your Honour, that’s not what
I’m saying. Actually, after the CAD started its investigation, I
remember Eng Han having that conversation with me, urging me to go back.
Your Honour, perhaps, if I push myself, I
could do that. But, your Honour, I’m also a wife, and my husband, he’s
been alleged of wrongdoing, and my son was having a lot of emotional
meltdowns because of innocent classmates asking him is his father in
jail already. I just don’t know as a wife, as a mother, is it the right
thing for me to leave my husband and not stand by him to go through this
period of time and also to bring his son away from him, your Honour?
And if something really happened to Kong, honestly, your Honour, I don’t
know can I manage to take care of my son alone with the burden of the
Crossover Project on my shoulder? I don’t know whether can I go on
performing as if nothing has happened, your Honour. And I was also
concerned about the church, because we are not the only one that has to
answer questions. Every single member of the church has their family
members and friends that ask them. And as a co-founder, I want to be
around to calm the church. I want to do my part to answer as many
questions as I can. So, your Honour, I don’t know can I realistically do
that. But in my mind, it was never a closed deal. I always thought to
myself that when everything is settled and if God is still willing, it
will be my privilege to be able to complete the Crossover, since we all,
not just me, have put so much effort into it.
Chew: Sun, I can understand the family
aspect of it, because I have a family as well. By this time, in 31 May
2010, you were aware of the deficit arising from the album expenses, 25
to 30 million. Correct?
Sun: That’s correct, your Honour.
Chew: You were aware that many of us laid down our lives for you and Kong Hee’s vision.
Sun: Your Honour, I would prefer to say that this is a vision from God to our church. This is all our vision.
Chew: I can understand you were worried
about Kong Hee, what’s going to happen to him. But didn’t it ever cross
your mind, Sun, that if you go back and launch the album, if it’s a big
hit and the sales comes in, your husband is going to be exonerated? Why
didn’t you go into it? Isn’t that what I told you, go and prove this
investment?
Sun: Your Honour, I can’t remember the
details of what Eng Han told me. I just feel that as a wife, I should be
by my husband’s side to walk through this journey with him. Moreover,
your Honour, I was also on bail, and only released from bail in 2013. I
wasn’t certain of what will happen. But like I said, your Honour, in my
mind, it’s never a closed deal. I have worked really hard for this
album. We’ve been away, not just me, the team, and even the team in
Singapore, everyone has put in so much effort to this US album. It would
be my greatest desire to be able to finish it. I was just waiting for
everything to settle down, yeah.
In relation to the question “Who owns the songs?”
Let’s see how Eng Han cross-examined Kong on August 18, 2014.
Chew:
Pastor Kong, do you remember preaching sermons to the church from the
Book of Daniel about how it was important for us not to look at the
outside but to look at the inside, because, in the book of Daniel, there
were people of God that were dressed up as magicians, astrologers, or
whatever, and you emphasized that we do not look at the outer appearance
but the inner appearance. Do you remember?
Kong: Yes, your Honour.
Chew: So when you changed your conviction about this, did you address the congregation on this?
Kong:
The whole focus of the sermon that I preached in church on the Book of
Daniel was on the importance of engaging the contemporary culture. I was
trying to achieve a few things your Honour. I’m trying to achieve first
of all, that we should learn to be accepting, that means, to show
understanding, to show love and respect to people who may be difference
from us.
Another
thing that I wanted to show was there is a need to balance between what
is liberally out there in the world and what is conservative within the
church. I said the place where you can find a balance, that’s a place
you find successful ministry. So it’s not rejecting of one extreme to
embrace another extreme, but trying to find moderation and balance, your
Honour.
So
I think whilst Sun could grow stylistically with reggae music, and
she’s not saying, or I am not saying that she felt the reggae music is
wrong, it was just stylistically, its not a natural fit for her as a
Asian singer. So she’s not making a value judgment that reggae music was
wrong. She’s not as comfortable, she could sing other better songs in
another kind of genre, and that was being achieved when she switched
over to Johnny Wright’s management.
<…….questions and answers …>
Chew: Pastor Kong, do you remember on 1 May 2007, we had a family day concert in church?
Kong: Yes, your Honour.
Chew: And Sun and her dancers were performing to “China Wine”, right?
Kong: Yes, your Honour.
Chew: During that performance, you asked the church, “Hey, guys, are you all comfortable with this?”
Kong: I cannot remember, your Honour, but I may have.
Chew:
Pastor Kong, I’ll just submit to you that you will flip and turn on
your convictions, depending on the circumstances, and you were totally
comfortable about “China Wine”, so much so that you even allowed Sun Ho
to dance before the congregation, but today you are telling a story that
is otherwise not true.
Kong:
Your Honour, if we were totally comfortable with “China Wine” all the
way through, we would have kept that song as one of the songs in the
debut album that was supposed to be launched in 2010.
Chew:
Talking about songs, do you remember that I asked you and Sun, “Why not
send Sun back to launch the album and let’s prove to the authorities
that this is a real investment, because money talks, right, the revenue
is going to come in?” Do you remember that?
Kong: Vaguely, your Honour.
Chew:
Your answer to me was, you said the songs were too old, they need to be
repackaged, and I said, “Then just let’s get the songs and repackage
it, spend a bit of money”, and your reply to me was, “We don’t own the
songs.” Do you remember this?
Kong: Yes, your Honour.
Chew:
But today in evidence you have just told me you are not sure whether we
own the songs, maybe Xtron owns the songs. So which is which?
Kong:
Your Honour, there are a lot of songs, depending on which songs he’s
talking about. There are the songs from the early days, there are the
songs from Wyclef Jean, there are the songs from Johnny Wright.
Chew: What about the songs from Johnny Wright that were about to be launched, did we own the songs?
Kong:
I think the song with Johnny Wright, I think it was a partnership, a
joint ownership of the songs and there was an expiration date as to when
the songs must be released.
Let’s go back to Sun’s EIC of May 19, 2015
Chew: Sun, where are the songs today? Who owns them?
Sun: Your Honour, I believe that we own
most of the songs. The reason why I say that was because I worked with
the A-list producers, and I remember that there are different
arrangement with the producers. Some of these A-list producers, they
really have faith in their productions. They believe that their songs
can sell millions. So sometimes when they give us the material, they
also put a caveat that if after recording the songs and we don’t release
the song, after a certain number of years, they can have the song back.
But I believe that most of the songs would owned by Xtron or UA.
Chew: Does anyone in the team know for sure whether Xtron owns it?
Sun: To the best of my knowledge, your
Honour, when it comes to copyright and publishing entity, it would be
Justin that would be in charge.
<…….questions and answers …>
Chew: Sun, do you remember that during
the CAD investigations, and after we got charged as well, I suggested
that we call Justin Herz down as a witness. Do you remember that?
Sun: Mm, I can’t really remember now, but it can be possible, yeah.
Chew; Most of the projections that were sent by Kong Hee to the team here in Singapore, would you say they came from Justin?
Sun: To the best of my knowledge, I would think so, your Honour.
Chew: Actually, I asked Kong Hee to
bring down Justin Herz as our witness, and he declined. Do you know any
reason why we can’t get Justing Herz to come down?
Sun: Your Honour, I’m not sure was I privy to this conversation. So….
Chew: Putting aside the conversation.
Sun: Okay.
Chew: As far as your interaction with Justin is concerned, would he be willing to come down?
Sun: I think this is a hypothetical
question. I’m not sure. I know that Justin has always been supportive of
this whole album. But concerning this matter, I don’t know.
Chew: Didn’t you and Kong Hee ever think that it would be good to bring him down, since he’s the source of the projections?
Sun: Your Honour, to the best of my recollection, I don’t remember discussing this matter with Kong.
To complete the picture I need to write Sun’s cross-examination evidence.
Sun cross-examined by Kong’s lawyer
SC Tong: Sun, after the CAD raid, you were interviewed for a few times. Right?
Sun: That’s correct, your Honour. To the best of my recollection, I think it’s four times.
SC Tong: In which month did it end?
Sun: I cannot remember now, your Honour. I just know that it’s sometime in 2010.
SC Tong: All right. Do you remember me telling you and Kong Hee to go back and launch the album?
Sun: Yes, your Honour. I remember Eng Han having that conversation with me.
SC Tong: Did we have hopes to make money?
Sun: Yes, your Honour. All this while,
we always believed in the commercial success of the album. And the
reason why we wanted to do the US album, your Honour, is so that when we
have commercial success of the US album, it will be tremendous for the
Crossover Project. It will bring the influence of the Crossover Project
to a global level and it will open more doors for us, including China,
to be able to preach Jesus Christ to the unsaved and also to encourage
the Christian artiste and also to engage communities to do our
humanitarian work, especially communities and countries that might not
be so friendly to Christianity.
<…questions and answers…>
SC Tong produced a new email evidence in court.
DPP Tan stood up.
DPP: Sorry, Mr Tong. Your Honour, the
witness has already testified that she’s not involved in budgeting for
her music career, and Mr Tong has rightfully pointed out that this
witness is not in this email. So I was wondering what’s the relevance of
this email? Should it be admitted?
<…questions and answers…>
SC Tong explained that the email was
just for him to show what was being discussed, even at that point in
time, August 2010. It was for Tong to ask Sun whether she was aware of
that.
SC Tong: Again, the context is 31 May,
CAD investigations started. You recall that you had given a variety of
statements in June and July, this is now August. I’m trying to deal with
the point raised by Mr Chew as to whether you wanted to, you could
have, should have gone back to the US. Your answer this morning was you
kept the options open as much as you could, but you had your own
personal and family constraints. Do you recall that?
Sun: I recall that, your Honour.
SC Tong: Would it be fair to say,
looking at this email or otherwise, that as at August 2010, even in the
midst of the investigations, there was still attempts made by Pastor
Kong in particular to review, revise and look at the budget for the
project?
Sun: That’s correct, your Honour.
SC Tong: It would be fair to say that the team had not abandoned the project. Correct?
Sun: That’s correct, your Honour.
DPP objected.
DPP: Your Honour, I think my learned
friend has gone beyond what he originally set out when he tendered these
documents in evidence. I don’t think this witness is in a position to
testify when she is really not a party in this email at all.
SC Tong: Sun, forget this email. Ignore
it. Think back to August 2010. At that point in time, would it be fair
to say that the team, yourself as well as those who had been in
Singapore, had not abandoned the project? Correct?
Sun: That’s correct, your Honour.
SC Tong: Efforts were still being taken
to negotiate the budget, to bring down the budget to something that was
more in the interests of lowering the figures and making sure that it
was realistic. Agree?
Sun: Yes, your Honour, we had worked very hard for the album and we still wanted to launch the album at that time.
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