City Harvest founder Kong Hee was arrested by police on Tuesday morning
along with four others from the mega-church for alleged criminal breach
of trust and falsifying church accounts, reported local media.
Pastor
Kong, his deputy John Tan Yee Peng and three other key ministry members
-- Lam Leng Ham, Chew Eng Ham, Sharon Tan -- were arrested at their
homes early Tuesday morning and questioned over the alleged misuse of at
least S$23 million from church funds.
They have since been released on bail and will be charged in court on Wednesday.
Channel NewsAsia reported that the funds could have allegedly been used to finance the music career of Kong's pop-star wife, Ho Yeow Sun.
The
Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) began its two-year investigation in
May 2010 after receiving information of misuse of funds.
The
Commissioner of Charities (COC), which launched its own investigation at
the same time, found there was a “concerted effort to conceal this
movement of funds from the charity’s stakeholders.”
The COC has
also suspended eight people, included the five that have been charged.
The other three are Ho herself, Kelvin Teo Meng How and Jacqueline Tan
Su Pheng.
Kong, a prolific Twitter user who goes by @konghee, last posted a tweet at
9am on Tuesday morning with a Bible Psalm in Chinese, translated to "The
sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. Jesus will
protect you from all harm."
He had spent the previous weekend
before his arrest delivering his usual sermons, including one at the
Heart of God Church in Paya Lebar.
Members of City Harvest church reacted with a mix of shock and denial.
"I
still believe he will come out spotless from all this -- he's a man of
God and we believe in him," said teacher Alicia Goh, 29, who attends the
church regularly with her husband and two young children.
"I
hope that the rest of the church and their good work will not be brought
down with him. He is the founder of the church, but he can also make
mistakes -- if he has indeed misused our funds, he needs to own up,"
said retiree Steven Wong, 67, who added that he was "very disappointed"
by the news.
Many of Kong's supporters also took to Twitter to
ask for "prayers" for Kong and the senior church ministry members, with
one user "Erictan" saying that he was "praying and fasting" for Kong's
"protection".
Other tweets were more sarcastic, with one tweeter
saying that Kong had been having too great a "harvest" and that his
arrest was an indication that "there is a God".
City Harvest, which was founded by Kong Hee and his wife Sun Ho in 1989, is among the largest church congregations in Asia. It runs 36
internal ministries and in 2010, had an average of 23,000 worshippers
attending its weekly services in English, Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese
and Indonesian in Singapore.
City Harvest church founder Kong Hee and 4 others arrested
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dua taiji liao
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amen.
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JESUS WILL SAVE THEM!!! DON'T WORRY!!!
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Originally posted by Kuali Baba:
lol! Stupid internet explorer. Anyways, always wanted to find variants of this scenario. Only recorded moment he mad! -
hahah, watch out for TV news tonight!
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dun feed the trolls
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Update from Straits Times: $23m of City Harvest Church funds allegedly used to finance music career of Kong's wife.
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Originally posted by dragg:
falling like dominoes.
charities (nkf, ren ci), scdf chief, (stat board), now church founder.
who and what’s next??
you know the charities part?
the people on top were so successful at fund raising, they forgot what they were about.. after a while, it became nothing more than just fund raising... that became their only goal.. to raise funds.. nothing else mattered for them..
eventually they looked at the funds as the be-all and end-all of the organisation existence and helped themselves to the funds..
quite sad...
but from what i've known about CHC, they never hid the fact that they were just raising funds for themselves.. i wonder why their followers can't see that..
well, the God i believe in isn't short of cash, mister...
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DPM Teo: Avoid speculation or making pre-judgements
SINGAPORE - The police on Tuesday issued a statement regarding the arrest of five persons from City Harvest Church for criminal breach of trust and false accounting after investigations by Commercial Affairs Department's (CAD) investigations were conducted.
Below are the comments from Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs, Teo Chee Hean, on the case:
"I would like to stress that the charges filed by CAD are against five individuals from the City Harvest Church (CHC) regarding the use of Church funds. They are not filed against CHC itself. The CHC is free to continue its church services and activities.
"CAD carries out investigations when it receives information that a criminal offence may have been committed. CAD had previously investigated the National Kidney Foundation and Ren Ci.
"As the matter is now before the courts, we should let the law take its course and avoid speculation or making pre-judgements that may unnecessarily stir up emotions."
http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20120626-355493.html
City Harvest's Kong Hee and 4 others questioned by police
City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee and four others, including former board members, were arrested on Tuesday morning following a probe into financial irregularities of the church by both the police and the Commissioner of Charities (CoC).
Among other things, the CoC found financial irregularities of at least $23 million from the church funds. Its spokesman said the funds were used with the purported intention to finance the wife of pastor Kong, Ms Ho Yeow Sun's secular music career to connect with people.
'There was a concerted effort to conceal this movement of funds from its stakeholders,' said the CoC spokesman.
City Harvest church founder Kong Hee (above) and four others from his ministry were arrested by the police in an early dawn raid on Tuesday morning, two years after investigations first began into the homegrown church. -- PHOTO: CITY HARVEST CHURCHRELATED LINKS
BACKGROUND STORY
In a statement, the police named the five: church founder Kong Hee, his deputy, Mr Tan Ye Peng, former board member, John Lam Leng Hung, church investment manager Chew Eng Han, and church finance manager Sharon Tan Shao Yuen.
Two years ago, on May 31 2010, the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) started an investigation into certain financial transactions of CHC after receiving information of misuse of CHC funds.
A police spokesman said that after a thorough investigation, the five would be charged with being in a conspiracy to commit criminal breach of trust as an agent. If convicted, each of them could be jailed for life and fined.
Mr Tan, Mr Chew and Ms Sharon Tan, will also be charged with conspiracy to falsify accounts. If convicted, each could be jailed up to 10 years and fined. All five will be charged in court on Wednesday.
In a separate statement, a spokesman for the CoC said it had launched an inquiry into the church on May 31, 2010 under the Charities Act.
Its inquiry revealed misconduct and mismanagement in the administration of the church, particularly in relation to the funds that were in the Building Fund which had been raised and earmarked for specific purposes.
The CoC spokesman said: 'The COC is concerned about the misconduct and mismanagement in the administration of the Charity.'
With immediate effect, it has suspended the five - along with three others, from holding any post on the church board of management. The three are: executive members Ho Yeow Sun, Kelvin Teo Meng How and Tan Su Pheng Jacqueline. They will be prohibited from taking part or being involved in managing the church, representing it in any matters, or attending any of its Annual General Meetings, Extraordinary General Meetings and Board meetings.
The CoC spokesman added that it will also consider taking further courses of action under the Charities Act against these individuals in order to protect the charitable property of the Charity.
'This may include the removal of these persons from their office as trustee, governing board members, officers, agents or employees of the Charity.'
http://www.straitstimes.com/The-Big-Story/The-Big-Story-1/Story/STIStory_815169.html
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Originally posted by winsomeea:
You calling them to ?????
have party and have fun.
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Originally posted by the Bear:
you know the charities part?
the people on top were so successful at fund raising, they forgot what they were about.. after a while, it became nothing more than just fund raising... that became their only goal.. to raise funds.. nothing else mattered for them..
eventually they looked at the funds as the be-all and end-all of the organisation existence and helped themselves to the funds..
quite sad...
but from what i've known about CHC, they never hid the fact that they were just raising funds for themselves.. i wonder why their followers can't see that..
well, the God i believe in isn't short of cash, mister...
all religious people have one thing in common - they just want to believe what they want to believe. -
People get caught not because of what they have done, it's because of they doing what they have done and they get too greedy. Look at those who got caught last time.
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Originally posted by the Bear:
you know the charities part?
the people on top were so successful at fund raising, they forgot what they were about.. after a while, it became nothing more than just fund raising... that became their only goal.. to raise funds.. nothing else mattered for them..
eventually they looked at the funds as the be-all and end-all of the organisation existence and helped themselves to the funds..
quite sad...
but from what i've known about CHC, they never hid the fact that they were just raising funds for themselves.. i wonder why their followers can't see that..
well, the God i believe in isn't short of cash, mister...
The reason for the decreasing rate of expansion is that the organization of expansion ceases acting as an instrument of expansion and becomes an institution. The tendency for all organizations to begin as instruments and to end as institutions is a general characteristic of all organizational patterns of any kind.
It can be recognized from the fact that there appears to be a drastic decrease in the effectiveness with which the purpose of the organization is achieved, a decrease which arises from the fact that the organization and its members begin to assume other purposes different from the goals of the organization as a whole.
The members of the organization and its operational patterns become vested interests more concerned with defending their own interests and their own methods of operation as elements in the organization than they are with the organization’s macro-goals.
There are may reasons for this situation which cannot be explained here, but we might mention two:
(a) each part of the organization has a subsidiary function which is distinct from the function of the organization itself and the egocentricity of all human actions tend to make this micro-goal of the individual part take priority over the macro-goal of the whole organization; and
(b) even if a part of it continues to achieve its micro-goal with continuing effectiveness, the social context of the organization changes, requiring modifications of the micro-goals and micro-functions of the parts, but such changes will be resisted, or simply not observed, by those parts long enough to reduce the effectiveness of the achievement of the macro-goals and macro-functions of the organization in the new social context.
http://www.carrollquigley.net/Lectures/General_Crises_in_Civilizations.htm
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Originally posted by Honeybunz:
Update from Straits Times: $23m of City Harvest Church funds allegedly used to finance music career of Kong's wife.
huh, so I suppose the kong hee preaching asking the people to sell flat to donate to church may not be donation to church but to fund horse sun ho......... o OH!
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Originally posted by Kuali Baba:
why last time nobody flip table when they openly sold the CDs before the services.
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Originally posted by winsomeea:
huh, so I suppose the kong hee preaching asking the people to sell flat to donate to church may not be donation to church but to fund horse sun ho......... o OH!
FOS one (stands for full of s...)! He told ppl to sell flat. why dun he sell his properties and assets? Ppl actually believed in him. I believe he is so convincing that he could easily and successfully get all these ppl to vote for him if he runs for election.
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Originally posted by dragg:
all religious people have one thing in common - they just want to believe what they want to believe.hehehe who will believe what they dun believe?
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City Harvest founder Kong Hee arrested for alleged misuse of church funds
By Elizabeth Soh | Yahoo! Newsroom – 2 hours 14 minutes ago
City Harvest Church website - Founder of City Harvest Church Kong Hee
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to fund THAT career? super damn not worth it leh
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maybe it's time to end the harvest.
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Originally posted by TehJarVu:
to fund THAT career? super damn not worth it leh
the singing lousy and she not attractive.
anybody will know something is wrong when her album is always top on the chart. if you ask around, who listens to her album? nobody!.
saw her concert on some youtube. I really wonder where and how Kong Hee managed to get ppl to kalefe.
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Originally posted by Dalforce 1941:
maybe it's time to end the harvest.
If only they could return the harvest to those who contributed thru selling their HDB flats, favourite motorbikes, 20% of their pay etc.
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most poor thing are their Blind believers
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City Harvest's Crossover Project lies at heart of CoC inquiry
At the centre of the inquiry by the Commisioner of Charities (CoC) is the City Harvest Church's Crossover Project and the misrepresentation on the use of the charity's fund.
The project was set up in 2002 purportedly to use Sun Ho's secular music to connect with people and reach out to non-Christians.
By 2003, it had drawn flak. According to the CoC, an individual alleged in the media that the charity was funding Sun Ho's music career.
This attracted public attention. Although the person eventually issued a public apology and retracted his allegations, the church faced media scrutiny. In response, it issued press statements and made several representations to its members to state that they had not funded Sun Ho's music career.
However, unknown to the executive members of the board, the church's funds were used to run the project, said the CoC.
'Over a period of 3 years, at least $23 million was used. However, during this period of time, the executive members were not told of the actual purpose of the use of these funds,' the spokesman said.
Giving an idea of how this was done, the CoC said the funds from the church were diverted to finance the project under the guise of donations to its affliated church in Kuala Lumpur between December 2007 and May 2010.
The church - City Harvest Church Kuala Lumpur (KL) - then transmitted the monies to support the project in the United States (US). During this period, at least $2.1 million was transferred from the Singapore church to the one in KL to fund the project, the CoC said.
It added that its inquiry revealed that pastor Kong Hee and his deputy, Mr Tan Ye Peng, executive member Kelvin Teo Meng How, church finance manager Tan Shao Yuen, Sharon and executive member Serina Wee Gek Yin were aware of the true purpose of the donations to the KL church.
Donations and tithes to the church were also transferred into a private fund known as the multi-purpose account, administered by Ms Wee and pastor Kong's former personal assistant, Ms Jacqueline Tan Su Pheng.
Monies in this account were in turn used to fund the project. The CoC said that between April 2007 and March 2010, the funds used for purported expenditures of pastor Kong and his wife amounted to approximately $600,000 and $3 million respectively. Selected donors were asked to transfer their contributions originally meant for the church's 'Arise and Build' project to the multi-purpose account.
It added that the existence of the account was not known to the church's members. 'There was even an attempt to conceal the existence of this account by closing the joint bank account and dealing only in cash transactions, which was kept in a safe at the charity,' the spokesman said.
About three years ago, a plan was conceptualised by Mr Tan, Mr Chew, Ms Wee and Ms Tan to divert a $600,000 donation to the multi-purpose account. The donation which was meant to be for the church's building fund, was diverted via a purported 'refund'.
The amount apparently went some ways to meet the financial needs of the project - which included US$100,000 (S$128,000) to finance a media team from Singapore to publicise and write about Sun Ho's music career in the US.
The CoC said that between 2006 and 2008, pastor Kong's company sold over $3 million worth of merchandise to the church, but did not disclose his interests in these related transactions in the church's financial statements.
In 2008, he 'refunded' royalties to the church amounting to approximately $770,000 from the sale of his merchandise. The CoC said this was probably motivated by concerns that the church's auditors would require them to be disclosed.
The purported refunds were concealed as a 'sales discount' given to the church, and later, reimbursed to pastor Kong from the multi-purpose account and the KL church.
'(The) refund of royalties to the charity was therefore cosmetic and he was instead never 'out of pocket',' the CoC said.
It also found evidence which suggested that certain members of the church's board had been less than prudent in the discharge of their duties toward the charity and its members.
-- ST