Accused changes tune, says he played role in church affairs

Singapore

ACCUSED City Harvest Church (CHC) member John Lam yesterday admitted on the stand to having been involved in every major decision of the church - a testimony in direct contrast to his lawyer's assertion earlier this week that Lam just "pops out here and there".

He was also challenged on his claim that companies such as Xtron Productions (which managed Sun Ho's singing career and the church's evangelical effort, the Crossover Project) were independent from CHC; the prosecution produced several documents pointing to CHC having called the shots for these companies.

Lam is among six CHC members charged with having "dishonestly misappropriated" some S$24 million of the church's building funds to finance Ms Ho's career, and with round-tripping another S$26.6 million, using entities such as Xtron, to cover the alleged misappropriation. The others on trial are Ms Ho's husband, senior pastor and co-founder Kon…