Whoever said knowledge is power has gotten it absolutely wrong on at least one occasion.

In this instance, a complete lack of knowledge might have saved City Harvest Church co-founder Sun Ho from being accused of misusing money from the church's coffers to fund her pop music career and evangelical forays into the United States market, under what is dubbed the Crossover Project.

The 42-year-old wife of pastor Kong Hee, who is one of the six individuals in court accused of misappropriating money, took the stand for the first time on May 19, 2015, in what is becoming an interminably long trial.

Various news outlets, The Straits Times, Today, Channel News Asia and even City Harvest church's mouthpiece, City News, went to town with their coverage.

Reading the various sources, one thing becomes blindingly clear: Sun Ho's entire Crossover Project career was based on the assumption she would be famous, regardless of the evidence:

1. The perception that she had hit the sales target of four million copies for her first five albums,

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.

2. She had what it takes to break into America just because people around her were telling her she could and

“I always remember (music producer and hip-hop artist) Wyclef Jean mentioning multimillions, so that is the number in my heart that I was working towards,” she said.

3. She was doing what she was doing as part of a holy diktat.

She was, however, confident of the success of her first American album because "I believe this is what God wants me to do and I was working very hard at it".

Produced during cross-examination were financial statements of her managing company Xtron Productions that indicated her first album sold 60,000 copies, while a video recording to church members indicated it was 150,000 copies.

Besides having no knowledge of her own album sales, Ho revealed she wasn't sure who was financing her or even how she was being financed.

Here are all the snippets that prove not knowing anything is the best policy:

From The Straits Times:

She claimed to have inspired stars such as Jay Chou and thousands of others to embrace Christianity through her concerts around the region.

But Ms Ho Yeow Sun yesterday also admitted that she did not know exactly how many of her Mandarin albums were sold, or how the project to break into the American pop music scene was being bankrolled.

From Today:

Taking the witness stand for the first time today (May 19) in the high-profile trial involving City Harvest Church (CHC) leaders, church co-founder and pop singer Ho Yeow Sun told the court that she had always been under the impression that her music would be a hit in the United States given that A-list producers were involved in producing her first US album.

And while she testified that she was not involved in the budgeting for the album, she recalled that the projected marketing expenses were to be “in line with those of (Colombian singer) Shakira’s”.

From Channel News Asia:

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).

From City News (City Harvest church's mouthpiece):

When it came to the financing of the project, Ho told the court that, since the start of the project, she knew Wahju Hanafi to be the main financier, and that there were other sponsors. When Hanafi met with Herz in 2004, he had also introduced himself as main financier. Ho said that she didn’t have an impression how much had been spent on the album until March 2010 when she was emailed the figures.

[...]

Ho testified that she had no personal knowledge of the album sales as she did not know how the record company tabulated sales. She based her understanding on the announcement that the general manager of Warner Asia, then Ho’s record label, made at a press conference that her album Gain had sold more than 500,000 copies in Asia.

Ho also attributed her impression that the albums did well to the large number of concert goers at her shows, and the large number of CDs she signed after the shows.

Related articles:

How to spend $10 million making an English album that won’t be released

Check out how Kong Hee totally got nailed by the Deputy Public Prosecutor in court

In 2003, City Harvest Church threatened to sue whistleblower. Guess he should be feeling vindicated today.

12 things Sun Ho said in her interview with City Harvest Church media that makes you go ‘Err…’ and squint very hard

U.S. pastor: City Harvest Church trial is a test case about government controls

An ex-City Harvest church goer explains why he used to be a CHC church goer

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