City Harvest Trial: Chew Eng Han’s 10 Submissions To Kong Hee

If you would have made an attempt to salvage whatever songs that have been recorded and not just write them off and forget whether you still owned the copyrights or not. Do you agree?

I disagree, your Honour.

And the second reason is because you refuse to send Sun back in 2011, or so, as suggested by me, because you said it would be too emotionally draining for yourself and for Sun. Do you agree?

No, your Honour. We didn’t send Sun back because the church needed her. We have a crisis, we needed the cofounder to be back, to calm the people, and, your Honour, I think just because I don’t agree with Eng Han, it doesn’t mean that I don’t love the church.

The third reason is because when I asked you could you have liquidated the copyrights and used the money to pay back whoever has borrowed the brunt of the losses your reply was, “Well, if the Xtron directors tell me to do it, then I will do it.”

I disagree with that because it is true, in this last four years there were a lot on my plates …. I have to perform my spiritual duties for the church; I have to defend myself in the midst of all these proceedings, the investigation first and the proceedings; I have to raise my own funds for the legal bills. At the same time, raise the funds in the church to pay for whatever obligations we have for Suntec.

“Perhaps I could have done more to talk to the Xtron directors, to talk to Kar Weng about liquidating the copyrights, but I do not agree that I don’t love the church and I didn’t help Xtron when, in the season of 2010, before the investigation began, and even in the midst of the investigation, I, too, was helping Wahju because of my cross-PG, to help Wahju pay off whatever that was needed to be paid for the album, even though at that point, there’s still a possibility for the album to be launched.”

The fourth reason is this, that during the years of the bonds being issued for the Crossover, from 2007 to 2010, that you could have put your own money into the Crossover instead of buying personal properties for yourself. Do you agree?

I did put my own money into the Crossover.

The fifth reason is this. You allowed $2.1 million to be sent from City Harvest Singapore to KL, and then you claimed that KL independently funded your love gift and your team salaries for the same amounts.

Your Honour, I disagree with this. I didn’t allow $2.1 million to be sent. The board made a decision — the church board made a decision to support their building project, which, to the best of my knowledge, did go to the building project. I didn’t engineer … the love gifts from CHC KL to me. I didn’t engineer the — KL’s support for the Crossover.

The sixth reason is this, that you … withheld yourself from giving to the Building Fund and tithe to your own church despite being the founder and senior pastor and being the one on stage who challenged thousands to sacrifice for the Building Fund.

I disagree. I tithed to the church’s mission, the main mission, which was the Crossover Project. I did give to the Building Fund as an offering during those years when the Arise & Build was on. When I pledged, I did pledge to the Crossover Project, which was the missions of the church.

The seventh reason is this. You allowed the church funds to be … used to buy $3 million of your own merchandise, which is your preaching … do you agree?

I disagree. Those decisions were not made by me. It was made by the board, and I have refunded them, your Honour, the royalties of it.

The eighth reason is this. In wanting to repay the bonds, you were thinking of ways for Xtron to earn more money from the church, so much so that you even planned to hold Asia Conference every year instead of once every two years.

Your Honour, I agree in the sense that Xtron must fulfill its legal obligation to City Harvest Church, and, yes, I did want Xtron to succeed so that Xtron was able to fulfill that obligation. But I didn’t plan to hold Asia Conference every year just so that Xtron could earn management fees or retainer fees. It was never in my mind to have Asia Conference on a yearly basis.

I disagree with the eighth reason.

The ninth reason is this, that you defrauded the MPA givers by hiding the royalties and the salaries and the bonuses from the spreadsheet which you showed to them, so that they would be emotionally led to contribute more to you and to Sun.

For the ninth reason, I kept the royalties and salaries confidential because that was the way we do it in City Harvest Church, when it comes to salaries and bonuses of any staff, we keep it confidential. I didn’t defraud the givers. If I have defrauded the givers, I would have artificially inflated the expenses. So while I netted off the salaries of the income, it was only to have confidentiality of what the donors already wanted to do, that was, to support the livelihood of Sun and my livelihood in the missions field. So I disagree with his submission.

The last reason is this, that in the property search you wanted to acquire Suntec, or, for that matter, along the way any property as quickly as possible regardless of the cost of the rental or the cost of the project. Do you agree?

I disagree, because to go for Capitol land as compared to Suntec would have put the church in a heavier risk, because it would have cost more and, with escalating construction cost, it would put the church in an even more challenging situations in the future. Suntec is a safer investment.