CHC trial: Worried staff brought up Ren Ci and NKF scams

SINGAPORE - What do the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) and Ren Ci Hospital scandals have in common with financial goings-on at City Harvest Church (CHC)?

They were all mentioned in an internal e-mail, in which a church staff raised concerns about one of CHC's financial dealings, it emerged in court on Friday.

The State believes several CHC investments were a cover to misappropriate church money and funnel millions into the secular music career of Ms Ho Yeow Sun, wife of church founder Kong Hee, who is one of the six accused.

In a July 2008 e-mail to Kong, CHC employee Suraj - who goes by one name - referred to financial scandals at the NKF and Ren Ci Hospital. That was the month when Ren Ci's chief Shi Ming Yi was charged with misappropriation of funds and forgery before being found guilty and jailed.

Mr Suraj noted that the authorities "would go for the kill" when they started an investigation into a charity and "the crux" would be the charity's accounts, as was the case with Ren Ci and NKF.

"As I reflect on our accounts, I don't feel good about it," he wrote. The retainer fee to Xtron Productions, a company linked with the alleged misuse of church funds, was not "watertight", he noted.

"It's fundamentally incorrect, especially with corporate governance, to pay them when Sun is parked in the same firm," he wrote.

His e-mail came a year after the accused decided to use church money to buy bonds in Xtron, which managed Ms Ho's music career from 2003 to 2008, a transaction that the State believes is a sham.

Earlier, former church auditor Foong Daw Ching denied giving church leaders the idea of omitting certain information in CHC's records. He said former church finance manager Serina Wee, one of the accused, had put words in his mouth and twisted what he told her.

The partner at accounting firm Baker Tilly TFW said he told her, for instance, that as many things were discussed during the church's general meetings, everything did not have to be recorded verbatim as long as the main points were captured.

But in a 2008 e-mail to several of the accused, Wee wrote that Mr Foong had suggested downplaying the church's relationship with Xtron.

"He advised us the following... We can talk about XPL (Xtron) to the members in the extra-ordinary general meeting but don't minute down everything. Just minute down the necessary portions so as not to show too close a relationship or control over XPL," she wrote.

She added that Mr Foong sat on the Commissioner of Charities' (COC) advisory committee. "Bro Foong mentioned he just had a talk with the Commissioner... and explained that churches are doing things very differently now as compared to the past... (and) if the COC insists on churches disclosing everything, it will be very hard for the churches to achieve their objectives."

Mr Foong said he was never on any COC advisory committee. He was, however, appointed to a committee under the Government's Accounting Standards Council. He had spoken to the Commissioner only during committee meetings.

"I don't have a private audience with the COC."

He said he had been advising CHC members informally since 1993 but had not seen them take notes. "As far as I know, I was never sent any notes or e-mail for my comment. Now I see this internal e-mail had been sent to the pastors to say that I advised. There are a lot of inaccuracies."

The trial resumes on Monday.

zengkun@sph.com.sg
twong@sph.com.sg

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