City Harvest Church Scandal: Church to Not Use Funds to Support Kong Hee's Defense

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City Harvest Church Scandal: Church to Not Use Funds to Support Kong Hee's Defense

The Channel News Asia reports City Harvest Church are not able to fund the pastor's court cases. Read below on the details:

The Commissioner of Charities (COC) said it has informed City Harvest Church that the church or its employees should not be involved in raising funds for the legal expenses of their founder and five others embroiled in the court case.

This comes amid reports that several members of the church are said to be making donations privately.

The COC had earlier issued a Restriction Order to the Board of City Harvest Church (CHC) to restrict CHC from paying the legal fees of the six accused persons or setting a specific fund for this purpose.

They are not allowed to enter into transactions relating to payment of services to the suspended individuals without the approval of the COC.
CHC's founder Kong Hee and five others have been charged with misappropriating money from the church's building fund.

Some S$24 million was allegedly transferred from the church's building fund account to two companies as bond investments.

A further sum of S$26.6 million was allegedly used to create the impression that the sham bonds had been fully redeemed, a process called round-tripping.

We like how the COC is standing up against using funds to support a pastor and his cohorts who legally used funds by the church. It only makes sense.

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Pastor Kong Hee's Church Leaders Now Charged in Misusing Church Funds Scandal

(Photo: stereo typo error)

Pastor Kong Hee's Church Leaders Now Charged in Misusing Church Funds Scandal

The Christian Post reports:

Kong Hee, pastor and founder of Singapore's City Harvest Church, attended court Wednesday for his second hearing in a trial in which he is being accused of misusing $18 million of church funds. Kong has also issued a statement, vowing to rigorously defend his integrity.
"I do maintain my integrity, and will rigorously defend that integrity against these charges," Kong, 47, said Wednesday, according to Singaporean newswire Today Online.
The pastor has been accused of "dishonestly misappropriating monies" from the church's building fund to promote and support the pop music career of Sun, who is in her early 40s. His charges also include three counts of "criminal breach of trust." Kong could face life in prison if found guilty on all three charges.

New charges on other members of ministry:

Kong's fellow ministry leaders Pastor Tan Ye Peng, John Lam, Chew Eng Han and Sharon Tanon have also been charged with three counts of criminal breach of trust.
Additionally, a sixth church executive, City Harvest Church's former finance chief Serina Wee, received 10 criminal charges Wednesday morning, including six for a criminal breach of trust and four for falsified records for allegedly helping to transfer funds to Kong's personal accounts.
After a two-year investigation, the Commercial Affairs Department, which investigates financial crime, found that Kong had allegedly been making "sham transactions" by allocating massive amounts of money to "purported bond investments," which were then being funneled into Sun's accounts.

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