Share This

Showing posts with label City Harvest Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label City Harvest Church. Show all posts

Wednesday 21 October 2015

6 Singapore church leaders found guilty of fraud over pastor's wife's failed S$50m music career

City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee (R) and his wife Sun Ho arrive at the State Courts in Singapore
VIDEO: A Sun Ho music video, featuring Wyclef Jean
A video from an English-language single, "China Wine", shows her dancing intimately with rapper Wyclef Jean, sparking criticism that she had betrayed her calling as a Christian pastor.

Six religious leaders in Singapore who used $50 million in church funds in a failed bid to turn the pastor's glamorous wife into a global pop star have been convicted of fraud.

Top left to right: former finance manager Serina Wee, founder Kong Hee, former finance manager Sharon Tan. Bottom left to right: , deputy senior pastor Tan Ye Peng, former treasurer John Lam, and former fund manager Chew Eng Han. Photo: Reuters

After a two-year trial that captivated Singapore with tales of lavish spending and financial deceit, pastor Kong Hee and five aides were found guilty of diverting $Sg24 million ($24 million) to finance his wife Sun Ho's music career, which was portrayed as a religious mission.

The six were also found guilty of misappropriating another $Sg26m from City Harvest Church to cover their tracks, prosecutors said.

Ms Ho, who starred in a music video with rapper Wyclef Jean, was not charged.

The church said Ms Ho's music could be used to attract followers.

On Wednesday, Judge See Kee Oon found the accused guilty of criminal breach of trust or falsification of accounts, or both.

The maximum penalty for criminal breach of trust, which all six were convicted of, is life imprisonment, according to the penal code.

The six were granted bail before their sentencing date, which has not yet been set.

The glamorous couple fell from grace after the leaders were charged in 2013 and the court was told how church funds were spent on music videos, marketing and a luxurious lifestyle

Prosecutors said Kong and his subordinates engaged in a practice called "round-tripping" by channelling money allotted for a church building fund into sham bonds in linked companies so they could finance Ms Ho's music career.

They falsified church accounts to make it appear the bonds were redeemed, prosecutors said. - AFP


Singapore megachurch leaders hit a sour note in pop music fraud case

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The co-founder of a Singapore church and five other leaders were convicted of multi-million dollar fraud on Wednesday for diverting money to support his wife's pop singing career, a rare fall from grace in the tightly regulated city-state.

The mix of money, faith and scandal in the case has fascinated the public in affluent Singapore, where such cases are rare under a system with little tolerance for corruption.

Senior pastor Kong Hee heads City Harvest Church, one of a growing number of Singapore's megachurches preaching "prosperity gospel" that blends spiritual and material aspirations. (http://reut.rs/1LCxhXr)

The churches have ambitions to turn Singapore into a centre for evangelical Christianity and to export their faith to the world. Kong was arrested and charged in 2012 with criminal breach of trust and falsifying accounts.

The six church officials were convicted of diverting nearly S$51 million (£23.97 million) in funds to advance the career of Kong's wife, Ho Yeow Sun.

"There is no doubt that they had something to hide ... They knew they were acting dishonestly," Judge See Kee Oon said in convicting the six in the Singapore subordinate court.

Ho has focused on the Mandarin pop market and has released albums, including "Embrace", through Warner Music Taiwan.

A video from an English-language single, "China Wine", shows her dancing intimately with rapper Wyclef Jean, sparking criticism that she had betrayed her calling as a Christian pastor.

Ho, the co-founder and executive director of the church, was not charged in the case.

The church, which had around 17,000 members last year, has stuck by its leader. It held a prayer session for Kong and others on Tuesday night and Ho issued a message of support after the court ruling.

"Thank you for your unwavering faithfulness in loving God and loving one another. More than ever before, let’s have a unity that is unbreakable," she said on the church website.

(Reporting by Rujun Shen; Writing by Rodney Joyce; Editing by Paul Tait)


Saturday 7 July 2012

The rise of mega-churches in Singapore

There are several mega-churches in Singapore with evangelical fund-raising zeal, posing potential problems for this multi-religious country.

THE city is abuzz with anticipation over the coming trial of leaders of the largest and richest charismatic church on charges of misuse of charity funds.

It is the result of two years of the biggest investigation of a religious institution.

Five leaders of the City Harvest Church (CHC) – including co-founder pastor Kong Hee who preached a form of money-generating prosperity gospel – were charged with criminal breach of trust.

Generic photograph of the Parliament building in Singapore. A question touching on the City Harvest Church saga has been tabled for the next Parliament sitting on Monday, July 9, along with others on voters, transport, education, health and manpower issues. -- ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

Singapore is often stereotyped as a society that only worships money.

“Now, some pastors are cashing in on it being true,” said a banker.

Over the past week, the case stirred up a hot public debate on and offline, with most supporting the court action.

Altogether eight leaders, including the arrested five, were suspended from charity duties, but the church itself was unaffected and allowed to carry on.

It could shape up into a judiciary benchmark of sorts because the new church leadership – with two pastors from abroad – and the majority of CHC followers have thrown their support behind their leaders.

A statement released by executive pastor Aries Zulkarnain said the church was standing by the five men.

“The people are our pastors and trusted staff and leaders who have always put God and CHC first,” he said.

“As a church we stand with them and I believe fully in their integrity.”

In two weekend services, 14,000 placard-carrying followers gave Kong Hee a standing ovation and a show of support.

Looking haggard, the pastor told his cheering supporters that there were two sides of the story and he would give his in court, adding: “I maintain my integrity.”

The five were charged with misconduct and mismanagement of tax-free charity funds amounting to at least S$23mil (RM57.6mil).

According to an official report, the money was intended for use to finance the music career of the pastor’s wife, Sun Ho, with the objective of winning more converts.

The case shows how vulnerable tiny Singapore is to foreign, especially Western, norms.

Many social trends from abroad end up in Singapore, including this form of money- raising religion.

City Harvest was co-founded by Kong Hee more than 20 years ago and now has about 24,000 followers, according to a Wikipedia report.

A father, who attended one of its early ser­vices with his daughter, said what he saw shocked him.

“There was a pop-style band playing deafening music – more like a rock concert than a church service.

“The congregation would dance trance-like and pop their tongues in and out in quick succession, like monitor lizards, making strange animal-like noises.

“The band music would be interspersed with instalments of a sermon, during which the pastor would cajole the congregation to donate generously, preaching that their donations would be rewarded – repaid exponentially by God.

“I saw the congregation members, mostly young men and women in their 20s and 30s, depositing cash into the donation box.”

The ultra modern City Harvest uses bright flashing lights, loud music and modern stage technology to appeal to young Singaporeans who feel bored by the quiet sermons of traditional churches.

Most of its followers are in their mid-twenties. Pre-university and undergraduates are targeted for recruitment.

Videos of past sermons show charismatic preachers such as Kong Hee conduct services like a master performer at work raising funds.

Once, he took the microphone to thank recent contributors, who included a couple selling their five-room public flat to downgrade to a three-roomer and offered S$20,000 (RM50,091) of the proceeds to the church building fund.

Another was a young man who sold his motorcycle and donated the entire proceedings. With each name mentioned, the audience cheered.

It led a cynic to comment: “They have turned religion into show business, like America’s TV evangelism.”

Prosperity theology began in the USA decades ago. It claims that financial donations were needed as proof of faith and they would increase the giver’s material wealth many times over.

In the 60s, some US mega-churches resorted to TV evangelism to reach its mass following, raking in large amounts of money.

There are several similar mega-churches here with evangelical fund-raising zeal, posing potential problems for this multi-religious country.

One is The New Creation Church, which plans to invest S$280mil (RM701mil) to build a mega-complex with a lifestyle-entertainment-cultural theme.

With some 22,000 members, the church raised eyebrows when it was reported that its charismatic preacher was paid a salary of S$500,000 (RM1.2mil).

The investigation into CHC came seven months after a top Buddhist monk, Venerable Shi Ming Yi, was convicted of misusing donated money and sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment (reduced to six on appeal).

The 2009 trial of the English-educated, high-living Buddhist monk who owned three properties and loved luxury cars showed how far the money culture had spread in Singapore.

In his trial, the 48-year-old monk told the Court that “we live in a modern world ... no longer like what it was in the past”.

When asked to elaborate, the monk said: “If people earn more, they will spend more. Many religious people, not just myself, are very different now.”

NSIGHT: DOWN SOUTH By SEAH CHIANG NEE cnseah05@hotmail.com