Church leaders ‘hid reason for Xtron incorporation’

SINGAPORE — The reason music production company Xtron Productions was incorporated as a private company in 2003 was so singer Ho Yeow Sun could be managed separately from City Harvest Church. But this was not told to church members, with the intention to distance her from financing by the church, prosecutors in the trial of six church leaders argued yesterday.

But defence witness and church founder Kong Hee, who is facing three charges for criminal breach of trust for misusing church funds for his wife Ho’s career, disagreed that there were sinister reasons for doing so.

Smarting from accusations by church member Roland Poon in January 2003 that the church was using building funds for Ms Ho’s music career — for which Mr Poon apologised publicly — church leaders pushed for Xtron, then a partnership, to be incorporated and to manage her. This was indeed to separate her career from the church, Kong said.

Members were given different reasons for the setting up of Xtron. These reasons could be “imprecise” or even “inaccurate”; the reason given in 2008 was that Xtron was formed to own and manage future buildings for the church, for instance. But Kong denied any intention to mislead or lie to church members.

Moreover, after the church got supporter Wahju Hanafi to foot the costs of Ms Ho’s first two Mandarin albums in 2003, it did not finance Ms Ho’s career until 2007 when bond investments were made, with funding instead coming from individuals, he added.

Kong and five other church leaders are in the dock for allegedly using S$24 million of church building funds to buy sham bonds from Xtron and Mr Hanafi’s Indonesian glassware firm to fund Ms Ho’s career, then misusing another S$26.6 million to cover up the first amount.

The trial continues.