Kong Hee, founder of City Harvest Church, was arrested for allegedly using millions of dollars of church funds to help his pop star wife, Ho Yeow Sun, advance her career.
Singapore police plan to charge the founder of one of Singapore’s largest evangelical churches with conspiracy to commit criminal breach of trust on Wednesday.
According to a police statement, four other church leaders in the 23,000-member congregation will also be charged with breach of trust and conspiracy to commit falsification of accounts.
“Financial irregularities of at least S$23 million ($18 million) from the charity’s funds have been discovered,” the commissioner of charities said in a statement on its website. “These funds were used with the purported intention to finance Ho Yeow Sun’s secular music career to connect with people.
City Harvest Church issued a statement on Tuesday.
“This morning, Pastor Kong Hee, Pastor Tan Ye Peng, John Lam, Chew Eng Han and Sharon Tan were informed to attend court tomorrow. There is no case that is being brought against the church,” wrote Aries Zulkarnain, executive pastor of City Harvest Church.
“The CHC Advisory Committee, comprising of Dr. Phil Pringle, founder and senior minister of Christian City Church in Sydney, and Dr. A R Bernard, founder and CEO of Christian Cultural Centre in New York, will continue to provide spiritual leadership. Both pastors were appointed advisory senior pastors over CHC,” Zulkarnain wrote.
“The church management board continues to provide guidance on running the church. Church operations and cell group meetings will continue as usual, including all weekend services at Singapore Expo and Jurong West. In the meantime, do keep the church, our pastors, leaders and their families in prayer.”
