City Harvest Founder Kong Hee Arrested for Allegedly Misuing Church Funds

As reported by Yahoo! News:

City Harvest founder Kong Hee was arrested by police on Tuesday morning along with four others from the local mega-church.

The Straits Times reported that Pastor Kong, his deputy Tan Ye Peng and three other key ministry members were arrested at their homes early Tuesday morning and are currently being questioned over the alleged misuse of church funds.

The other four members are John Tan Yee Peng, Lam Leng Ham, Chew Eng Ham and Sharon Tan.
Other allegations after a two-year Commercial Affairs Department probe include suspicion that the four had breached charity laws by falsifying church accounts.

According to Today, the Commissioner of Charities (COC), following an Inquiry into the City Harvest Church (CHC), has also suspended eight members of the church governing board with immediate effect under the Charities Act.

Channel News Asia reported that the misappropriated funds had allegedly been used to finance Kong's wife, pop singer Ho Yeow Sun's career.

It is believed that about S$24 million was allegedly pumped into her lavish lifestyle in Los Angeles, where she is now based.

Yahoo! reported in 2010 that Ho was staying in a S$7.7 million estate in Hollywood Hills with her son, an assistant, a nanny, and her relatives.

The 29,000 sq ft Mediterranean style building consisted of four structures, including accommodation for a butler, nanny, and maid. It also had a swimming pool and two car garage with space for another nine cars.

In Singapore, Kong and Ho also speculated in property, moving from a five room HDB flat in Tampines before moving to a S$1 million unit in Horizon Towers and finally buying an apartment at Central on Devonshire Road worth about S$2.6 million.

Ho had also previously been asked to return for the CAD probe in 2010, and was grilled by police for more than eight hours.

Kong, who has maintained his innocence, tweeted a Bible Psalm around 9 am on Tuesday morning.

The prolific Twitter user, posted 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".

The five are expected to appear in court on Wednesday.

We trust the Singapore court would investigate and give a clear verdict eventually. Scams Singapore would not comment now due to the sensitivity of the issue.