In his re-examination today, Chew Eng Han reiterated that the church’s board members were in full support of everything that had been done in furthering the Crossover Project.
Chew conducted his own re-examination today. CN PHOTO: Daniel Poh
The prosecution wrapped up 10 days of cross-examination today, questioning City Harvest Church’s former fund manager Chew Eng Han on he and his co-accused’s efforts in sourcing for funds to provide Xtron with the means to repay the advance rental after the Advance Rental Licensing Agreement was rescinded.
The court heard that after the church acquired Suntec Convention Centre, there were allegations made on the internet regarding the purchase of Suntec and the financing of Sun Ho’s music career. The Crossover team thus decided to rescind the ARLA so that CHC and Xtron would no longer have any business transactions. For Xtron to refund the church the advance rental, it needed Firna to redeem its bonds.
Chew testified that while Firna was liable for the loan it took from CIMB Bank to redeem the bonds, the Crossover team would give Firna the album profits for Firna to repay the bank loan and source for other funds to help with the repayment.
In his re-examination this afternoon, Chew sought to defend the legality of the bond investments he helped structure.
In challenging the prosecution’s case that the Xtron and Firna bond investments were an unauthorised use of the church’s building fund, Chew reasoned that the party who had the right to determine if any usage was authorized or not was the church board.
Right from the beginning, in 2002, the board had been supportive of the Crossover Project, and had given approval for everything that was needed to be done.
If the bonds were indeed unauthorized, why did the prosecution not call any board members as its witnesses, Chew put to the court.
Among other things, Chew again emphasized his state of mind at the time when the bonds were constructed and bought, that he had full confidence in Sun Ho’s success as a secular singer.
He also pointed to evidence implying that there were real, legal obligations on the part of Xtron and Firna to repay the debts owed to the church. He told the court that it was precisely because of this obligation that various individuals had been sought out to help fill up the “hole” so the church would suffer no loss.
Chew is due to conclude his re-examination on Monday, and Tan Ye Peng will take the stand.
中文报道 – 城市丰收审讯：周问为何不传召董事会会员出庭作证
