City Harvest church founder Kong Hee and 4 others arrested
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Do you know... God prefers Atheists? : http://www.mrwiggleslovesyou.com/archive/477
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Surreal.
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No more news?
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life is surreal
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CITY HARVEST TRIAL
Auditor 'shouldn't shoulder all blame'
REPORT: ELIZABETH LAW
AFTER 20 days of hearings, the second part of the City Harvest trial drew to a close yesterday.
Auditor Foong Daw Ching (right), who had spent eight days on the witness stand, gave his testimony for the last time yesterday.
During re-examination by the prosecution, he agreed that the auditor should not shoulder all the blame if senior people in an organisation conspire to commit fraud and hide the traces.
Chief Prosecutor Mavis Chionh had read out part of a judgment of a case involving one of Mr Foong's auditing firms, TeoFoongWongLCLoong (Tfwlcl), where they were sued for being negligent in their audits of US multinational firm JSI Shipping.
The firm had failed to spot that a former director was siphoning company funds into his pay package. The case later went up to the Court of Appeal, where Tfwlcl was made to pay JSI Shipping $273,386 in damages.
Mr Foong said that in fraud cases where senior people conspire, it would be "very highly unlikely" that auditors could uncover the fraud no matter what tests they used.
But earlier in the day, former church accountant Serina Wee's lawyer sought to prove that Mr Foong knew of the alleged fradulent transactions and had in fact given them advice.
Mr Andre Maniam produced an e-mail exchange showing the City Harvest group's reluctance to deal with Baker Tilly engagement partner Sim Guan Seng, preferring to go to Mr Foong instead.
In a missive between Wee and her fellow accused Tan Ye Peng in June 2009, Wee said it will be difficult to talk to Mr Sim about Xtron Production's accounts because they were concerned about showing overly close links between the company and City Harvest Church.
Tan then asked Wee to meet Mr Foong for an "off the record" meeting so he could advise her on what to tell Mr Sim at a separate meeting, to ensure he would not ask too many questions.
During earlier parts of the trial, it was revealed Mr Foong told the City Harvest leaders he was the "consultant partner", a title he created to make the church more comfortable in approaching him, instead of the assigned engagement partner, any tme they needed help.
But when re-examined by the prosecution, Mr Foong repeated an oft-heard refrain over the past days, saying that he had given the City Harvest group "personal and professional" advice.
Using the analogy of a doctor, Ms Chionh said a doctor wouldn't be able to diagnose a patient if he was not told all of the patient's symptoms. Mr Foong agreed.
Earlier in the trial, during cross-examination by the defence, it emerged that the accused would seek advice from Mr Foong on Xtron bonds on a number of areas.
Xtron was the former management company of church founder Kong Hee's wife, Sun Ho. It also has close links to the church.
Kong and five of his deputies, including Wee and Tan, are accused of misusing more than $50 million of church money to finance Ho's singing career and trying to cover up the amount.
As the day came to a close, Mr Foong seemed visibly relieved when he was finally released as a witness. This means that he will now be allowed to discuss the case with others, except other potential witnesses.
Mr Foong was later seen talking to all the accused outside court, with the exception of former investment manager Chew Eng Han.
The trial is expected to continue on its third leg in January next year, lasting till March with a small break in between. Four witnesses are set to testify, with at least three being auditors from Baker Tilly.
News, The New Paper, Saturday, September 21 2013, Pg 10
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Why blame auditor?
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So now everybody point finger at this poor fellow...
become scapegoat...
draw all the flak away from gong hee huat cai...
btw, so they admit is got fraud but blame auditor... power la...
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wonder how much they paying the scapegoat?
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give me serena wee wee one nite after stand confirm chop suppork the case.
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why must drag until so long ah? sian lah!
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i sing song, you all kpo simi!
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Originally posted by Craptalkone:
wonder how much they paying the scapegoat?
scapegoat no need pay one...all tua him to hell
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tua ke ho lan
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Originally posted by TehJarVu:
i sing song, you all kpo simi!
look like a chao ah gua.
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Why the buddhist monk's case dealt with very fast and this christianity pastors' case very super slow?
Kelong ah? Or christians better protected ah?
I see no good reason to let this case drag for so long.
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狗头铡伺候!
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No more news again.
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wait till next year horse year good for horse face issit
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next year is horse year meh ?
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2014 is year of horse...
MEHHHH~~~ NEY~~~~ CHINA WINE~~~
sibei jia rat sia...
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Christmas is coming. Are they waiting for them to enjoy their Christmas then they go ahead?
Is there some kind of conspiracy going on?
Singapore court practises double standard. When others having same nature of case are dealt with in a short time , this case of City or Shitty Harvest is given the privilege to drag until they happy , is it?
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soooo.. wtf happened to him?
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