SINGAPORE: City Harvest Church (CHC) co-founder Sun Ho never asked how much sales her music albums had chalked up, but was “under the impression” they sold well, with platinum awards to boot, she testified on Tuesday morning (May 19).
It was the first time the 42-year-old was taking the stand in the trial involving six of the church’s leaders, including her husband and co-founder Kong Hee.
The question of the “wild fluctuations” in her sales figures reported by different sources had been put to her by CHC’s former investment manager Chew Eng Han, who called Ms Ho as a witness.
Kong, Chew and four others are accused of misusing millions from church coffers to fund her pop music career and evangelical forays into the United States market under what is dubbed the Crossover Project.
Before a full public gallery, Ms Ho said she was working towards “sales of multi millions” for the US album because the producers in the US were confident of her. But it was never launched.
Referring to email correspondence between Ms Ho and producers in the US, Chew questioned how she derived that her first five Mandarin albums could have sold four million copies — an average of 800,000 per album — when evidence showed otherwise.
Chew pointed to the financial statements of her managing company Xtron Productions and a video recording to church members, which recorded, respectively, sales of 60,000 and 150,000 copies for her first album.
“If that was the case (that four million albums were sold), Xtron would not have been scrambling for money for the US album. There was no way you would have believed that the albums sold four million copies,” contended Chew, who is conducting his own defence.
It is the prosecution’s case that the six accused had misused S$24 million in church building funds to buy sham bonds in two companies to boost Ms Ho’s career. Another S$26.6 million of church funds were then allegedly circulated through complex transactions to cover the first sum.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/city-harvest-church-co/1856948.html
It was the first time the 42-year-old was taking the stand in the trial involving six of the church’s leaders, including her husband and co-founder Kong Hee.
The question of the “wild fluctuations” in her sales figures reported by different sources had been put to her by CHC’s former investment manager Chew Eng Han, who called Ms Ho as a witness.
Kong, Chew and four others are accused of misusing millions from church coffers to fund her pop music career and evangelical forays into the United States market under what is dubbed the Crossover Project.
Before a full public gallery, Ms Ho said she was working towards “sales of multi millions” for the US album because the producers in the US were confident of her. But it was never launched.
Referring to email correspondence between Ms Ho and producers in the US, Chew questioned how she derived that her first five Mandarin albums could have sold four million copies — an average of 800,000 per album — when evidence showed otherwise.
Chew pointed to the financial statements of her managing company Xtron Productions and a video recording to church members, which recorded, respectively, sales of 60,000 and 150,000 copies for her first album.
“If that was the case (that four million albums were sold), Xtron would not have been scrambling for money for the US album. There was no way you would have believed that the albums sold four million copies,” contended Chew, who is conducting his own defence.
It is the prosecution’s case that the six accused had misused S$24 million in church building funds to buy sham bonds in two companies to boost Ms Ho’s career. Another S$26.6 million of church funds were then allegedly circulated through complex transactions to cover the first sum.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/city-harvest-church-co/1856948.html
