Wahju Hanafi tells prosecution that he was mostly concerned about the big issues, such as budgets, when it came to Xtron.
CN PHOTO: Daniel Poh.
Why were staff members of City Harvest Church handling the day-to-day operations of Xtron Productions Pte Ltd? This was a question that the prosecution repeatedly asked over the course of this morning’s session.
Wahju Hanafi, the prosecution’s seventh witness found himself repeatedly stressing that CHC and Xtron share the same vision of the Crossover Project, hence it would only have been natural that the two organizations worked closely hand in hand.
Hanafi explained that even though matters might have been be proposed and discussed in the absence of the Xtron directors, approval and the ultimate decisions were made by the directors of Xtron: Choong Kar Weng and Hanafi himself.
Deputy public prosecutor Tan Kiat Pheng also toiled to extract answers from Hanafi regarding a few emails between defendants Serina Wee and Tan Ye Peng with regards to Xtron’s management board’s minutes.
Tan asked Hanafi to recall if he had signed a set of meeting minutes before or after one of the aforementioned emails. Hanafi replied he could not remember. Tan then repeated his question, with Hanafi repeating his answer.
Finally, defense counsel for Tan Ye Peng, N. Sreenivasan stood up and objected to DPP Tan’s “badgering” of the witness, pointing out that Hanafi had already answered his question a number of times but that it appeared that Tan was asking the question over and over again to get the answer he wanted from Hanafi. Judge See Kee Oon concurred and asked Tan to move on to his next question.
DPP Tan questioned Hanafi about drafts of meeting minutes that appeared to have been backdated. Hanafi offered that Wee in wanting to carry out their business and operations in a right and proper manner and to keep proper records, may have drafted meeting minutes after decisions and resolutions had been made. This could have been the case also because a number of meetings were not physical ones but an amalgamation of emails and telephone calls discussing Xtron matters. He did not see it as the company having wrong intention or trying to hide something unlawful.
It was shown in court that Hanafi had personally donated about S$480,000 toward Sun Ho’s bonus. The court also saw minutes of Xtron’s board meeting on Nov. 24, 2007, which indicated that Sun Ho had written a letter to Xtron to be taken off Xtron’s payroll in order to free up the company’s funds for the upcoming debut English album. According to the minutes, Xtron would continue paying for Sun’s airfares for her promotional schedule.
Court resumes at 2 pm with DPP Tan continuing his questioning of Wahju Hanafi.
中文报道 – CHC审讯：检方向《思创》董事提出会议记录的疑问
