The pastor and five other leaders or Singapore’s City Harvest Church are on trial for alleged embezzlement.
Prosecutors say the six siphoned off nearly $40 million of church funds in a scheme to boost the career of pop singer Sun Ho, wife of pastor Kong Hee.
Hong Kee, the founder and pastor of City Harvest Church — one of Singapore’s richest churches — was charged in court Wednesday for allegedly syphoning off nearly $19 million of the congregation’s money to support his wife’s singing career.
Over the past few weeks, City Harvest Church pastor Kong Hee, a Christian leader in the Charismatic Movement who oversees more than 40 affiliates in such places as Singapore, Taiwan, and Indonesia, has been the focus of a police probe in Singapore for the possible misuse of church funds.
Now Hee’s questionable financial dealings may be surfacing in L.A. Hee’s pop star wife, singer Ho Yeow Sun, who’s better known as Sun Ho, is renting a Hollywood Hills mansion for $20,000 per month, according to The New Paper.
Asian journalists, who have jumped on the story, don’t know if anything is illegal about the expensive accommodations, but it’s certainly a huge public relations gaffe for the embattled Hee and City Harvest Church.
A day after City Harvest Church completed a massive five-day seminar which involved 30,000 people including foreign evangelists, police rounded up several individuals linked to the church for alleged misuse of church funds.
The 17 people who are ‘assisting police with investigations’ included the megachurch’s founder and Senior Pastor Kong Hee, who was picked up early Monday morning.
City Harvest Church (CHC) has been questioned by the Commissioner of Charities over its $310 million purchase of a stake in Suntec Singapore which it announced two weeks ago, the Straits Times reported today.
The stake raised some eyebrows among Singaporeans who questioned if registered charities should be allowed to go into business and if the income collected by CHC through its Suntec rentals would be taxed.
Businessman withdraws allegations about City Harvest Church and singer Ho Yeow Sun, and church prays to forgive him over the weekend The Straits Times (Singapore), Jan. 27, 2003 http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/ By Samuel Lee The man who made allegations about City Harvest Church’s support of pastor-singer Ho Yeow Sun’s pop career has apologised publicly. And in five sermons over the weekend, Ho’s husband, church founder and senior pastor Reverend Kong Hee, asked the congregation to forgive the man. Two weeks ago, Mr Roland Poon Swee Kay contacted the press to complain about what he said were improper practices by Rev Kong and
Though upset by charges of impropriety in City Harvest Church’s support of her pop career, pastor Ho Yeow Sun will return to perform for the MTV Asia Awards The Straits Times (Singapore), Jan. 20, 2003 http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/ By Samuel Lee SINGAPORE – pastor-turned-singer Ho Yeow Sun was in tears on the phone last Saturday morning. The City Harvest Church leader sounded distraught on the line from Taipei, where she is promoting her second album, Sun*day. Someone from her congregation in Singapore had just informed her that the weekend edition of Today had a Page 1 story in which some church members