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CHC trial: Xtron chief raised spectre of criminal breach of trust

SINGAPORE — A City Harvest Church member and director of an audio-visual company that provided services to the church had raised the possibility of criminal breach of trust (CBT) in the church’s transactions with other entities, in March 2010 — about three months before the authorities started hauling up some members and staff for questioning.

Mr Choong Kar Weng had raised three issues with Kong in an email: The sizeable losses of Xtron for several years, what it should do moving forward and the idea of criminal breach of trust. Photo: Ernest Chua

Mr Choong Kar Weng had raised three issues with Kong in an email: The sizeable losses of Xtron for several years, what it should do moving forward and the idea of criminal breach of trust. Photo: Ernest Chua

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SINGAPORE — A City Harvest Church member and director of an audio-visual company that provided services to the church had raised the possibility of criminal breach of trust (CBT) in the church’s transactions with other entities, in March 2010 — about three months before the authorities started hauling up some members and staff for questioning.

It emerged in court yesterday that some time late that month, City Harvest co-founder Kong Hee — one of the six church leaders charged with CBT and/or falsifying accounts — had called Xtron Productions Director Choong Kar Weng, saying that he was concerned about its bonds and other transactions.

Kong asked Mr Choong, who is legally trained, to check if “things were okay”.

Mr Choong, who took the witness stand for the second day since the second leg of the trial began on Monday, told the court that he found out more about the relationships among the church, its fund manager AMAC Capital Partners and Xtron. Besides providing audio-visual services to City Harvest, Xtron managed the music career of Kong’s wife, Ms Ho Yeow Sun, from 2003 to 2008.

He raised three issues with Kong in an email on March 31, 2010: The sizeable losses of Xtron for several years, what it should do moving forward and the idea of CBT.

On the last point, Mr Choong had said in his email: “If the authorities view all the parties as related and look at all these as one project, will there be a case of CBT?”

He wrote that he did not think anyone was guilty of CBT as there was no dishonesty and the way church funds were used was “all within the powers of the management board”.

“The worst-case scenario will probably be some members refusing to accept any explanation and (bringing) a civil action against Pastor and the management board,” he wrote.

Prosecutors yesterday produced the email as they wrapped up examination of Mr Choong, their fourth witness. Mr Choong has been Xtron Director since Dec 31, 2005.

The prosecution has been seeking to prove that Xtron was controlled by the church, producing documents that showed several of the accused — mainly former finance manager Serina Wee Gek Yin, former board Vice-President Tan Ye Peng and former fund manager Chew Eng Han — discussing key Xtron matters, with Mr Choong informed only later, or not at all.

But Mr Choong maintained that the two organisations are separate legal entities that work closely together for the Crossover Project, Ms Ho’s foray into the pop music world to get more people into Christianity.

Mr Choong, 41, said he became more active in discussions about Xtron’s losses in 2010 as the company needed to urgently repay the church advance rentals for the Singapore Expo premises, as the church had acquired Suntec.

A six-way Blackberry exchange involving Mr Choong, Ms Ho, Kong, Tan, Chew and a church employee also took place on April 5, 2010, discussing an internal audit.

Mr Choong said “the special audit is to buy us time to fill up the hole” — referring to losses suffered by Xtron and the Crossover Project, as well as over S$40 million to be paid back to the church after the advance rental agreement was terminated, he told Deputy Public Prosecutor Christopher Ong.

An internal audit would identify areas for improvement and hold off the authorities — “they will at least not do anything till the report comes out. By then, the hole is filled,” Mr Choong told the group.

He will be cross-examined by defence lawyers today.

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