City Harvest founder Kong Hee charged in court for alleged misuse of church funds
City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee and four other senior CHC members were charged in court early Wednesday morning for alleged misuse of church funds.
They were offered bail of $500,000 each and their passports were impounded.
Kong, 47, faced three charges for committing criminal breach of trust as an agent of CHC and for allegedly misappropriating about $24 million from CHC's building funds for unauthorise
d use.
Each charge carries the maximum punishment of life imprisonment and a fine.
His deputy, Tan Ye Peng, 39, faced 10 charges, with three for criminal breach of trust and another seven for allegedly falsifying church accounts to cover up discrepancies in numbers.
Another church board member, John Lam Leng Hung, 44, faced three charges similar to Kong, while church finance manager Sharon Tan Shao Yuen, 37, and investment manager Chew Eng Han, in his 50s, faced seven and 10 charges respectively.
The five were said to have diverted $24 million of the church's building fund to finance the music career of Kong's wife, pop singer Ho Yeow Sun.
This was allegedly done through a series of sham transactions, which were made under the pretense of being bond investments in two companies, Xtron Productions and PT The First National Glassware.
The prosecution believes that $13 million was diverted to Xtron, with the remaining $11 million of church funds going to the other company.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Christopher Ong told the court that not only had they allegedly diverted $24 million through false transactions, some of them had conspired to misappropriate another $26.6 million of church funds to cover it up.
Kong, Tan, and the three other senior ministry members looked solemn as the charges were read against them.
Dressed in a white shirt and black pants, Kong appeared strained as he walked into the Subordinate Courts holding hands with his wife, Ho, who kept her eyes downcast. The pair was accompanied by a group of at least 100 supporters.
(the above is taken from Yahoo! Singapore. http://sg.news.yahoo.com/city-harvest-founder-arrested-for-allegedly-misuing-church-funds.html)
i dun really like the Pastor's wife, the so-called singer. lousy voice with forgettable songs, prancing around half naked and still claim to be a pastor's wife. first off, when Sun Ho broke into the music scene, she claimed that she was serving as a minister in the church but decided to concentrate on her music career.
right..... if she was truely as devoted as she claimed to be then she should have stayed and serve the church, and not serve herself. as for the dressing like some love-sicked teenager, excuse me you are 30-40+ and a mother. pls act your age lor. really disgusting.
there were some allegerations about money misuse to fund Sun Ho career but it was dismissed and forgotten. now it seems like there is no smoke without fire.
the City Harvest Church is being run like some business operation, making it so darn questionable. look at their lifestyles, both in SG and USA, i am not asking them to live like paupers but the money could have been used to help the poor.
seriously if that Sun Ho career is so darn successful then mayb they could have inject back the funds and live like kings and queen. i dun understand why Sun Ho has to move to LA and still unable to make a name for herself after so many years. she should have just come back and wake up from her "pop star" dream.
just watched her MTV "Kill Bill", what the hell was it about? it is really pure trash.
i hope that justice will be served.
