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CHC, Xtron seek to show they had nothing to hide

SINGAPORE — Defence lawyers in the trial of five City Harvest Church leaders and a former leader yesterday sought to show that Xtron Productions and the church were transparent with their auditors.

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SINGAPORE — Defence lawyers in the trial of five City Harvest Church leaders and a former leader yesterday sought to show that Xtron Productions and the church were transparent with their auditors.

Asked by Senior Counsel N Sreenivasan, who is representing one of the accused, Tan Ye Peng, why the church and Xtron used the same auditors, the firm’s Director Choong Kar Weng said it was “for transparency’s sake”. “There’s nothing to hide,” he added.

Mr Choong, the prosecution witness, agreed with Mr Sreenivasan that the arrangement made it transparent that church-building funds were being invested in Xtron, which used the money for the music career of Ms Ho Yeow Sun.

The church co-founder and wife of Kong Hee was managed by Xtron from 2003 to 2008.

Producing documents, Mr Sreenivasan showed that the church had wanted a different audit partner to separate itself from several companies it had links with, including Xtron.

But it did not make a switch, as Mr Foong Daw Ching, of auditing firm Baker Tilly, had advised that it was good for companies with some common interests to be managed by one audit partner.

The court had heard on Wednesday that Mr Foong dished out advice seemingly in his personal capacity to church leaders in August 2008 on how not to portray too close a relationship with or that it had control over Xtron, according to an email written by Serina Wee Gek Yin to church co-founder Kong Hee, with Tan Ye Peng and Chew Eng Han in the loop. All four individuals are among the accused.

Asked why former Xtron Director Wahju Hanafi and other supporters contributed money to raise the S$40.5 million the firm needed in 2010 to repay the church when its advance rental licence agreement (for Singapore Expo premises) was terminated, Mr Choong said no supporters of the Crossover Project, which was set up to use Ms Ho’s music to reach out to non-Christians, would ever want the church to bear losses.

Mr Sreenivasan also sought to establish that his client was involved in Xtron’s cashflow matters as he was heavily involved in the Crossover Project.

Senior Counsel Andre Maniam, representing Sharon Tan Shao Yuen, another of the accused, showed that law firm Rajah & Tann acted for Xtron in several transactions, including the purchase of Riverwalk, its advance rental licence agreement with the church and its purchase of bonds issued by a glass company called Firna.

This would mean the firm understood what one transaction meant to another, Mr Maniam argued.

Earlier this week, the prosecution produced a March 2010 email by Mr Choong to Kong that raised the idea of criminal breach of trust (CBT) in the church’s transactions with other entities. He went on to write that he did not think any CBT had been committed. Asked by Mr Maniam yesterday if he still held this view, he replied: “Yes.”

Mr Choong concluded his testimony after four days on the witness stand.

The prosecution is expected to call an Immigration and Checkpoints Authority official and a church trustee as witnesses today.

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