'Noble ends
cannot justify criminal means', prosecutors tell City Harvest
leaders
SINGAPORE: Six City Harvest Church (CHC) leaders have argued
they did not misuse S$50 million of church funds with sinister
intent, but prosecutors on Tuesday (Sep 20) said that this cannot
justify "telling lies and misappropriating money".
Deputy Public Prosecutor Christopher Ong said that even if the
offenders, including pastors Kong Hee and Tan Ye Peng, did so "in
good faith", "what essentially they ended up convincing themselves
of is that the ends justify the means".
In that "dangerous climate ... crimes ended up being
committed. No matter what the means, the sentence meted out cannot
send the message that if you think your ends were noble then the
means you choose are going to be mitigated by your ends ... no
matter what your ends may be, crime is not the means you should
choose", added DPP Ong.
The six were convicted last year of misappropriating S$50
million of church funds to secretly bankroll the secular career of
Kong's wife, Sun Ho.
To keep the church's hand in her career under wraps, millions
were channelled through two companies - one of them being music
production firm Xtron.
Prosecutors allege Kong controlled Xtron, and the millions
passing through it. At trial, Kong had denied this, saying he was
involved only as a "liaison". This "seems to reduce him to the role
of a postman", prosecutors said, but the evidence shows Kong was in
full control of ... the millions", DPP Ong said.
He pointed out that Kong "can't seem to decide how much
control (he had)" and has routinely changed his evidence
surrounding this point to his convenience. "(Kong) has no
credibility whatsoever," the prosecutor said.
Kong's influence over Xtron was so great that he sometimes
single-handedly made decisions regarding millions of dollars of
church funds, bypassing the company's directors, the High Court
heard.
His co-accused, former CHC board member John Lam, had admitted
during the 143-day trial that if Kong disagreed with Xtron's
directors, "Kong's view would prevail", DPP Ong said.
Turning to Kong's co-accused, prosecutors refused to accept
they had been "brainwashed" and said they should be held
responsible for their roles in the conspiracy.
"They are clearly intelligent people ... it's too simplistic
to view this as them submitting to Kong's vision. This is not a
case of these people being just everyday church members and Kong
being the pastor right at the top. These are all leaders", DPP Ong
argued.
Kong's right-hand man, pastor Tan, had "peddled untruths" to
the church's auditors, telling them Xtron's directors made
decisions independently. Former investment manager Chew Eng Han
also "planned for lies to be told" to auditors, and had a major
hand in designing round-tripping transactions to disguise the
origin of monies channelled into Ms Ho's career, prosecutors
said.
They said former finance managers Serina Wee and Sharon Tan
knew the transactions were not genuine, yet "misrepresented" them
as legitimate transactions to the church's board members and in the
church's accounts.
Lam - who prosecutors said "was at the apex of CHC's
leadership" - together with pastors Kong and Tan, was complicit in
hiding the truth from his fellow board members. The former
treasurer of the board had also had a hand in drafting the church's
investment policy. However, his concern in doing this was "not to
ensure CHC's investments were safe, but to ensure the sham Xtron
bonds" would not be discovered, DPP Ong said.
The deceptive and manipulative actions of the six allowed the
conspiracy to continue "in a climate of unquestioning acceptance",
prosecutors told the court.
The appeal continues on Wednesday morning, when prosecutors
will make their case for stiffer sentences to be meted out to the
six offenders.
- CNA/ms