City Harvest trial: Serina Wee, Kong Hee involved in financing Crossover Project: DPP

City Harvest Church (CHC) founding member Tan Ye Peng (left) and former finance manager Serina Wee are photographed on Sept 11, 2013. The prosecution for the ongoing CHC trial sought to prove on Wednesday morning that Wee and founding pastor Kong Hee
City Harvest Church (CHC) founding member Tan Ye Peng (left) and former finance manager Serina Wee are photographed on Sept 11, 2013. The prosecution for the ongoing CHC trial sought to prove on Wednesday morning that Wee and founding pastor Kong Hee were more involved in the financing decisions of the Crossover Project than alleged by witness Mr Wahju Hanafi. -- ST PHOTO: LAU FOOK KONG

The prosecution for the ongoing City Harvest Church (CHC) trial sought to prove on Wednesday morning that former CHC finance manager Serina Wee and founding pastor Kong Hee were more involved in the financing decisions of the Crossover Project than alleged by witness Mr Wahju Hanafi.

Mr Hanafi had earlier testified that Kong was more involved in the "vision and mission" of the church, while Wee merely performed an administrative and budgeting role. The Indonesian businessman owns or was a director of companies involved with the alleged sham transactions to fund the Crossover Project, which was aimed at evangelising through Kong's pop-star wife Ho Yeow Sun's secular music career.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Kiat Pheng referred to several emails in which Wee had given specific instructions to Mr Hanafi on transfers between various bank account for the project. But he insisted that she did not deal directly with the banks on his behalf. He said: "There are no direct emails between Serina and the banks, it is just her giving instruction to me, so it sounds to me more administrative."

DPP Tan also referred to discrepancies in Mr Hanafi's testimony about Kong. While he had said Kong was not involved in the financial transactions, he had also said Kong had "expressed... how we are going to finance (the project) as well." Mr Hanafi replied that this was the "beginning stage" around 2002 to 2004, when Mr Hanafi had told Kong he wished to directly sponsor or indirectly pay for the project costs.

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