City Harvest trial: Enough twists, turns, and tears to create a Korean drama

City Harvest trial: Enough twists, turns, and tears to create a Korean drama

IT WILL be at least four months before the verdict in the City Harvest Church (CHC) case is handed down, but after two years, the trial has seen enough twists, turns and tears to fuel a Korean drama.

On Wednesday, it took a decisive step forward when the final witness - former church executive member Jean-Jacques Lavigne - finished his testimony.

The prosecution, which alleges that church founder Kong Hee and five others misused about $50 million of church funds, and the defence will make their final submissions in September.

Kong and five others face various charges, all of them revolving around an alleged plot to illegally pour millions of dollars of church funds into his wife Ho Yeow Sun's pop music career, and then to cover up the misdeed.

The saga began in 2010, when Kong and 16 others were picked up by the police to assist in investigations. By the time Kong and five others entered a packed courtroom in 2013 to face trial, the case had become one of the most anticipated trials of the decade.

Founded in 1989, City Harvest is one of Singapore's megachurches and has 47 affiliate churches across the Asia-Pacific region and more worldwide.

More than 100 church members turned up on the first day of the trial, and some even spent the night waiting outside the court.

The evidence trained the spotlight on the inner workings of the church and the relationships between the accused and the Crossover Project, a church plan which sought to use Ms Ho's secular music to spread the Gospel.

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Ms Ho's music career - which included five Mandarin albums released between 2002 and 2007, and a yet-to-be-released English album - was also endlessly dissected as details of how it was planned and funded emerged.

In one instance, it was revealed that church members had spent about $21,000 on Ms Ho's singles using iTunes gift cards.

It was also disclosed that, during the making of Ms Ho's English album, noted music producer Wyclef Jean had said Ms Ho's English songs sounded "too white, Caucasian" to distinguish herself from other singers attempting to make a mark in the United States.

He recommended that she try an "Asian-Reggae" fusion sound, which led to the making of China Wine, an English single released in 2007. Ms Ho was criticised for its risque music video, in which she dances in a skimpy outfit.

The shocking revelations were not limited to the courtroom.

In 2013, Chew Eng Han, one of the accused and the church's former investment manager, announced that he was quitting the church after almost two decades.

In a statement, he said he had been "seeing and tolerating... betrayal, slander, ingratitude, denial and lies, manipulation and control, greed, pride, hypocrisy, abuse of authority" and more.

Later, in court, he accused Kong of lying to church members about Ms Ho's music success, which he said was "not real", and a result of church members spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy her CDs, as well as lies about her achievements.

He went on to tell Kong: "One of the reasons I left your church is that I realised that you deceived.... the people who are closest to you."

Throughout the 137 trial days, Kong and the others have maintained that they did nothing wrong; the transactions which the prosecution alleges were shams to illegally use church money were in fact legitimate; and they had acted "in good faith" on the advice of lawyers and auditors.

Defending the Crossover Project, Kong said it had been supported by the church members and its board, and had in fact tripled City Harvest's congregation.

"If not for the Crossover, we would be just another neighbourhood church," he said.

The others on trial also insisted that all they had done was for the good of the church, with some likening City Harvest to their family.

The church's finance manager Sharon Tan broke down in tears when insisting her long relationship with CHC precluded her from doing anything to harm it.

"This is my first and only church. Everything that is me right now I learnt from this church," she cried. "I never had the intention to cause any loss to the church. Never."

Many church members have remained on the defendants' side, with some even making sure they had drinks and snacks during the short breaks on trial days.

While public interest in the case has waxed and waned, it is likely to pick up when the trial returns to court in September.

But with either side having the chance to appeal, the final chapter may yet be far from being written.

The six defendants

The six accused City Harvest Church (CHC) leaders face between three and 10 charges each for criminal breach of trust involving the church's building funds and/or falsifying the church's books.

The building fund money was used for the Crossover Project, spreading the Gospel through the secular music career of Ms Ho Yeow Sun, the wife of church founder Kong Hee. A sum of $24 million was used to invest in purportedly sham bond investments in music production firm Xtron and glass manufacturer Firna, and another $26 million was allegedly used to cover it up.

Kong Hee, 50

Church founder and senior pastor, also president of the management board from 1992 till April 2011.

He faces three charges of criminal breach of trust.

Kong maintains he and the other defendants repeatedly sought and received assurance from lawyers and auditors that the transactions at the heart of the trial were all above board. Pointing to meetings with auditor Foong Daw Ching, Kong said: "If I have committed fraud, corruption and forgery, why would I want to see him?"

Kong also testified he did his "level best" to recoup all the money put into Ms Ho's US album. "Why? Because the church had invested its building fund in Xtron and I wanted to be sure the church suffered no loss."

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Tan Ye Peng, 42

CHC deputy senior pastor, appointed to the church's board in 1995 and became vice-president in 2007. He also served on the church's finance committee, later known as its investment committee, from July 2006 to June 2007.

He faces six charges of criminal breach of trust and four charges of falsification of accounts.

Tan admitted he was not trained in accounting. "In fact, when I was in university year one, I failed my accounts," he said once, to chuckles from the courtroom.

"In every aspect, we've never felt that we've done anything unauthorised," he said. "Till today, church members come to me and say, pastor, hang in there. No one says, pastor, we've been deceived."

Tan said he was an ordinary man who just wanted to be faithful to God's vision and he would never do anything to cause loss to the church.

"This is the church that I grew up in. This is my spiritual family."

Serina Wee, 38

CHC finance manager from 2005 till August 2007, also a member of the board then. She served on the church's finance, later investment, committee, from 2006 to 2007, and was the administrator of the Crossover Project.

Wee faces six charges of criminal breach of trust and four charges of falsification of accounts.

She told the court it had been her dream to "become a church staff and serve God full-time".

"I'm not a pastor, I'm not a preacher, but one thing that I really enjoy doing, and I thought that I could do reasonably well, is accounts," said Wee, who started working at CHC in 1999 as an accountant.

Wee said she could never imagine that CHC leaders would do anything to harm the church. "It never crossed my mind that whatever... we were doing could possibly be violating the law," said Wee.

Sharon Tan, 39

CHC finance manager who took over from Wee.

She faces three charges of criminal breach of trust and four charges of falsification of accounts.

Tan said she had flagged concerns about the alleged round-tripping of church funds. But she said she was repeatedly assured by her co-accused that everything would be "okay".

She earlier told the court: "With all the understanding that I had all this while, your honour, honestly I don't know why I have been charged."

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Chew Eng Han, 54

Church member from 1995 to 2013, previously the church board's vice-president and treasurer. He served on the finance committee from 2006 to 2007, and is one of two principal shareholders of investment firm AMAC Capital Partners. He left the board after AMAC was appointed as the church's fund manager. He was also a director of Xtron Productions from 2003 to 2004.

He faces six charges of criminal breach of trust and four charges of falsification of accounts.

Chew said even if church funds had been misused as alleged, the blame should lie with those deciding how to spend the money. "Whether it was spent correctly or not... I think the right people have to account for it. And it's the people who had discretion and knowledge of their detailed spending items," he told the court.

John Lam, 47

Church member since 1993, served as treasurer and secretary, and also sat on the audit committee. He was on the finance committee from 2006 to 2008, and was chairman at one point. He was also a director of Xtron from 2003 to 2004.

Lam faces three charges of criminal breach of trust.

He said he believed the Xtron bonds were a sound investment because Ms Ho had had successful previous albums and he trusted Chew to have done due diligence.

zengkun@sph.com.sg

 


This article was first published on May 22, 2015.
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