The court heard this morning why Sun Ho’s US album was delayed and eventually not launched. Kong Hee also explained the events that led to the issuance of Firna bonds.
CN PHOTO: Michael Chan
Sun Ho was hospitalized for six weeks in March or April 2009 because she was critically ill, just a few months before her album was slated to be released that August.
Kong Hee told the court this morning that this was the reason why the US album was delayed a third time. Ho’s condition was very critical at that time. After a second operation, she recovered and eventually managed to finish recording the album.
The next scheduled date to release the album was Aug 17, 2010. Her promotional activities, including a radio tour, TV appearances and press opportunities, were supposed to start in June 2010. However, the investigation for this case started in May 31, 2010 and Ho was “summoned” back to Singapore on June 12 or 13. Ho could not go back to US for the album release in the end.
This meant that it was now not possible to recover the cost of the album and Wahju Hanafi, who had pledged to support the Crossover Project, would have to absorb all the losses.
He also told the court that the budget for this album, produced by Johnny Wright, was much more conservative and realistic than Wyclef Jean’s costs. The plan was to release three albums in total, and the first album would have been profitable by the second year after it was released.
HOW THE FIRNA BONDS CAME ABOUT
Earlier this morning, Kong also explained the chain of events that led to the Firna bonds.
By Aug 2008, Xtron had to focus on the property search for City Harvest Church. As shown in the transcript for the Extraordinary General Meeting held on Aug 10, 2008, Kong gave the executive members an update on the search for a building for the church’s new worship location. He also told them about the plan for Xtron to purchase the Riverwalk property. He also explained to them that the plan was for Xtron to eventually help CHC build a “stadium” and lease it to them for worship services.
The court earlier heard that auditor Foong Daw Ching had pointed out in a meeting that because Ho was Kong’s wife and an artiste under Xtron, there was a need to disclose all the transactions between CHC and Xtron. Kong said that they did not want this disclosure because Xtron would not be seen as an independent entity. He had explained earlier that if Xtron was seen as part of CHC, the property owners would not be keen to deal with them.
That was how Ho came out of Xtron’s management and into Hanafi’s company Ultimate Assets to be managed by him independently.
In Chew Eng Han’s statements to the Commercial Affairs Department, he had said that he came up with the idea of buying bonds from Firna, and that Hanafi would use part of those proceeds to support the Crossover Project.
Kong confirmed that Chew, together with Tan Ye Peng, discussed this plan with him. He in turn told them to check with the auditors and lawyers if this plan was acceptable. He told the court that he was never told at any point that the lawyer or auditor was uncomfortable with the plan.
Court resumed at 2.15pm.
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