Yesterday’s cross-examination of the evidence presented by former City Harvest Church (CHC) board member John Lam has turned up some interesting ‘new’ facts, including how singer Sun Ho, whose career the church leaders are accused of illegally funding, isn’t the commercial success she’s made out to be.
According to financial statements brought up by lead prosecutor Mavis Chionh, the Church had spent about $500,000 in 2004 buying at least 32,000 of her unsold Mandarin albums to give to ministries and churches overseas, wrote Channel NewsAsia (CNA).
This was inconsistent with Lam’s argument that the Church had invested in bonds issued by Ho’s management company Xtron due to her success. He’d said he didn’t think junk bonds were necessarily bad ones and had expressed his belief that Ho’s album would do well in the United States and be able to cover the bond’s obligations.
The prosecution shot the claim down, saying that Lam would’ve known Xtron was not a profitable company, describing how its only asset was a laptop and that it could not even pay a $46,000 freight services bill.
CNA also reports it was revealed in court how the bulk of Xtron’s funding came from well-to-do church members like Indonesian businessman Wahju Hanafi, whose donations to City Harvest’s building fund were refunded and then channelled to Xtron.
Photo: Screenshot from “Kill Bill” music video
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