Tag Archives: Mr Sim

More News On The CHC Court Case

25 Saturday Jan 2014

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From Channel News Asia,

CHC trial: Defence seeks to show prosecution’s questioning was flawed

SINGAPORE: Defence lawyers representing the six leaders of City Harvest Church on Thursday sought to show that the prosecution’s line of questioning was flawed.

Having charged a day earlier that the prosecution had been selective in the information it had presented to the key witness, defence lawyer N Sreenivasan tried to reinforce the point on Thursday.

He asked the church’s former external auditor, Mr Sim Guan Seng, if he answered the prosecution’s questions based on documents it provided.

Mr Sim said his answers were based on what he read on the spot.

Mr Sreenivasan then sought to show that the documents produced by the prosecution were irrelevant.

He asked Mr Sim if auditors needed to refer to email correspondences of the church’s management in the course of their work.

Mr Sim said it was not necessary.

The defence argues that the investments in Xtron were not “sham” just because Mr Sim said they were not sound.

Later in the day, the lawyer representing accused Chew Eng Han sought to show that his client was actively sourcing for properties for the church.

This, Mr Michael Khoo explained, was why the accused sought the monies through the advanced rental agreement.

Previously, Mr Sim had testified that the agreement between the church and Xtron did not make sense.

Church founder Kong Hee and his five deputies are accused of misusing millions of the church’s building fund to boost the music career of singer Sun Ho.

It is the prosecution’s case that the accused moved the monies via “sham bond investments”.

Source: By Claire Huang, CHC trial: Defence seeks to show prosecution’s questioning was flawed, Channel News Asia, http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/chc-trial-defence-seeks/965532.html, Posted: 23/012014 21:48. (Accessed 26/01/2014.)

CHC Revelations: Poor Explanations Resulted In Resignations

25 Saturday Jan 2014

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The “rats” continue to “jump”.

Channel News Asia reports,

CHC trial: Bond investments “do not make sense”, says auditor

The lead auditor going through the City Harvest Church’s books testified on Tuesday that the bond investments made by the church and some related firms “do not make sense” and had “gone one round”.

SINGAPORE: The lead auditor going through the City Harvest Church’s books testified on Tuesday that the bond investments made by the church and some related firms “do not make sense” and had “gone one round”.

On the stand for the third day, Sim Guan Seng of Baker Tilly was taken through the church’s investments, which were subsequently invested in or loaned to other firms.

These related firms were AMAC Capital Partners, Xtron, Firna and Ultimate Assets.

The church had invested in a “special opportunity fund” (SOF) in AMAC, which was owned by accused Chew Eng Han.

AMAC was the fund manager of the church at that time.

Through documents raised in court, Mr Sim said AMAC then loaned the church’s money to Ultimate Assets, which in turn used the same sum of money and loaned it to Firna, also known as PT The First National Glassware.

Ultimate Assets and Firna are owned by businessman and long-time church member Wahju Hanafi, who testified in the trial previously.

Mr Sim added that Firna then used the same sum to redeem the Firna bond.

He described this as “round one”.

The witness said “the same thing happened” for “round two”, where a similar cycle took place.

In all, the church invested S$11.4 million in AMAC’s SOF in different tranches.

Mr Sim noted the initial sum of S$11.4 million made “one round”.

Mr Sim said adding to the “confusing” transactions was the advanced rental agreement between the church and events company Xtron, which also made “one round”.

Mr Sim told the court that the advanced rental from the church paid to Xtron was used by Xtron to invest in Firna bonds.

Firna would then repay the loan it took from Ultimate Assets and then Ultimate Assets would repay the loan to AMAC.

This made it possible for AMAC to redeem the S$11.4 million bonds bought by the church.

When asked about the significance of these transactions, Mr Sim said it meant that the church started off with an investment in Firna and ended up with advanced rental paid to Xtron in their books.

“Looking at the Excel sheet would lead me to question whether the investments by CHC in SOF… are really investments in the first place or if they are done to facilitate or to help Firna repay the Firna bonds that City Harvest had invested in,” said Mr Sim.

“The amount transferred seems to facilitate that.

“Just looking at this spreadsheet, it seems to be a plan to enable Firna to repay the bond before the end of the financial year. So, that means the SOF investment itself would be a very questionable investment.”

Mr Sim added that this would then raise the doubt that the church and Xtron entered into the advance rental agreement for purposes other than what was represented to him.

The prosecution’s case is that church founder Kong Hee and his five deputies misused millions of the church’s building fund to boost singer Sun Ho’s career.

They alleged that the accused did so through “sham bond investments” in Xtron and Firna.

It is also the prosecution’s case that some of the accused tried to cover up the misuse through what it calls “round-tripping”.

The court heard that the church had previously declared that no money was lost from its kitty.

This is also part of the accused persons’ line of defence.

During the hearing, Mr Sim also said Baker Tilly had resigned as auditors of the church last October.

He said they had conducted their audit for 2010 mid-way and had raised several issues to the management and board but were unable to obtain satisfactory answers, so they decided to step down.

The firm has resigned from Xtron as well.

Mr Sim will be cross-examined by the defence on Wednesday.

Source: By Claire Huang, CHC trial: Bond investments “do not make sense”, says auditor, Channel News Asia, http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/chc-trial-bond/961734.html, Posted: 21/01/2014 14:29, Updated: 21/01/2014 23:35. (Accessed 26/01/2014.)

CNA Reports On Current CHC Court Developments

21 Tuesday Jan 2014

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Channel News Asia reports,

CHC trial: Lead auditor takes issue with CHC’s investment in Xtron

SINGAPORE: Some of the financial moves made by the City Harvest Church did not make any sense, said the external lead auditor of the church’s book.

Mr Sim Guan Seng of accountancy firm Baker Tilly took the stand on Monday in the trial of the six church leaders accused of misusing millions of church funds.

Mr Sim said he took issue with the investment in Xtron.

The church had bought S$13 million worth of Xtron bonds initially. This bond subscription agreement was subsequently raised to S$18 million and then to S$25 million.

The revision was to raise enough money for Xtron to purchase a Riverwalk property.

Mr Sim said he thought it was possible for the church to buy the property directly without having to invest in Xtron. He then told the church’s management to check with their lawyers to see if this was possible.

At the time of the purchase, Xtron, which already had S$18 million, borrowed another S$10 million from the bank.

Referring to email exchanges dated August 2008, between accused Serina Wee, Chew Eng Han, Sharon Tan and Tan Ye Peng, the prosecution asked if there was any reason the four would want to hide the bank loan from auditors.

Mr Sim said he was not aware and added that he found it puzzling that Xtron had to borrow money from the bank when it was supposed to have enough cash.

Later in the day, the court heard that the S$13 million had been drawn down before the property was bought.

Earlier on Monday, Mr Sim had told the court he initially had various concerns, chief of which was that Xtron was “not the most financially healthy” company and he wondered why the church would invest in Xtron.

The court also heard that the witness was not aware of several discussions, one of which involves a letter of guarantee made by businessman and former Xtron director Wahju Hanafi, indemnifying Xtron.

Mr Hanafi was in turn indemnified by four others, including church founder Kong Hee and his deputy Tan Ye Peng.

When asked, Mr Sim said he was not aware of these personal guarantees.

He also questioned why these were not disclosed to the auditors.

When told by the prosecution that the guarantee letter was prepared in 2010 but dated 2007, Mr Sim said he was “puzzled by the purpose of this guarantee” when the audit was already over.

Pointing to various documents produced in court, Mr Sim said that it would seem like the bond transactions between the church, Xtron and another firm, Firna, were set up for specific purposes, which would “raise a lot of red flags”.

Firna, a glassware company owned by Mr Hanafi, was allegedly used in what the prosecution calls “sham bond investments”.

Kong and five of his deputies are accused of misusing the church’s building funds through “sham bond investments” to boost the music career of Ms Ho, Kong’s wife.

The trial continues.

Source: By Clair Huang, CHC trial: Lead auditor takes issue with CHC’s investment in Xtron, Channel News Asia, http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/chc-trial-auditor-would/960498.html, 20/01/2014. (Accessed 20/01/2014.)