Kong considered viability of church’s bond investments

SINGAPORE — Apart from releasing music albums and going on tour, pop singer Ho Yeow Sun was to have starred in a cable television reality series earning US$25,000 (S$31,700) per episode and her career, also known as the Crossover Project, was to have generated US$39.9 million in net profit from 2008 to 2014.

These details emerged yesterday in the most thorough breakdown yet of projected returns from Ms Ho’s career, as City Harvest Church co-founder Kong Hee’s lawyer, Mr Edwin Tong, sought to show that Kong gave genuine consideration to the viability of the church’s bond investments in the two companies.

The two companies were Xtron Productions and PT The First National Glassware, owned by businessman, Crossover Project supporter and prosecution witness Wahju Hanafi, who was on the stand yesterday.

In an e-mail on July 28, 2008, Kong had asked fellow accused Serina Wee Gek Yin and Tan Ye Peng how the investments would be paid for “if the projected Crossover profits don’t come (in), or assuming just one-third comes in”.

He had also wanted the church’s lawyer and auditors to approve its arrangements, the e-mail showed.

Prosecutors in the criminal trial of the five church leaders and a former leader contend that the bond investments were a sham and S$24 million was misappropriated from the church’s building fund for Ms Ho’s career.

As defence lawyers ended their cross-examination of Mr Hanafi, testy exchanges ensued as the prosecution re-examined and pressed him on apparent contradictions in his replies.

Asked why he was not keen to know how the church made its decisions — given that he was a big donor — Mr Hanafi spoke at length about being a “mature giver” and how churches and businesses manage money differently.

This prompted Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Kiat Pheng to remark: “This is the first time we hear you saying so much things since last Friday (when the defence began cross-examination).”

Mr Hanafi, who has been on the stand for over a week, replied that he had been given the opportunity to speak, to which DPP Tan responded that he had had similar opportunities with defence lawyers but mostly said “yes”.

At this point, Mr Tong piped up: “We cannot help it if the prosecutor’s witness agrees with us.”

DPP Tan also asked Mr Hanafi why he needed to redeem the bonds Firna had issued to Xtron in 2010, ahead of their maturity date.

He asked if it was because the church needed money back from Xtron after purchasing a stake in Suntec Singapore — as proposed by Tan Ye Peng’s lawyer N Sreenivasan — or because an anonymous person had threatened to expose the connections between Xtron and the Crossover Project, as Mr Hanafi wrote in an e-mail to his wife?

Mr Hanafi said he wanted to show that he could borrow commercially from a bank; the money returned to Xtron could then be used for the Suntec purchase.

Prosecutors will continue re-examining Mr Hanafi today, and are likely to call auditor Foong Daw Ching as their next witness.