City Harvest Church Criminal Breach of Trust Case
The City Harvest Church Criminal Breach of Trust Case is the biggest CBT case in Singapore since the beginning of the 21st century, revolving around City Harvest Church and its founders, especially Kong Hee. The total amount of misused funds is around S$50 million.
On 31 May 2010, the Office of the Commissioner of Charities (COC) and the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) of the Singapore Police announced that 17 individuals linked to the City Harvest Church, including church founder Pastor Kong Hee and his deputy, Pastor Tan Ye Peng, were under investigation after complaints alleging the misuse of church funds. The joint press statement stressed that the investigations are neither linked nor initiated from its acquisition of a stake in the Suntec Convention Centre The police also visited the offices and homes of these individuals and brought back computers and financial records for investigations. The police were looking into some financial transactions among these individuals and related companies, involving the possible falsification of accounts and criminal breach of trust amounting to millions of dollars which dated back a number of years. The authorities said that regular church activities and services for the congregation need not be disrupted during ongoing investigations, which was expected then to take several months.
The investigation followed requests by church members for the COC to review the church's constitution, which denied ordinary members the chance to attend general meetings, or be privy to its annual reports and financial statements. Some members felt that the church board had utilised the church's building fund and committed it to "future liabilities" without consulting members at its latest AGM.
In June 2012, Kong Hee and four other members of the church were arrested by the Commercial Affairs Department of the Singapore Police Force. Charges were filed against the five individuals and not the church itself, which would be allowed to continue its services and activities. They were released on $500,000 bail each. In July, charges were brought on one additional former finance director with the last of the pre-trial conferences is set for 22 November. When the trial started on 15 May 2012, some Christians expressed concern that the slow pace of the trial may have a negative impact on public opinion.
On the same day as the initial arrests, the COC released a press statement detailing the results of its inquiry stating there were misconduct and mismanagement in the administration of the charity. There were irregularities of at least $23 million in the charity's funds, which were used to finance Sun Ho's secular music career. There was also a concerted effort to conceal this movement of funds from stakeholders. Eight members including the five arrested such as Chew Eng Han and Sharon Tan,Sun Ho and two others were suspended from their duties with the charity while the COC considered further course of action under the Charities Act. $24 million was taken from church building funds and put into sham investment bonds in Ho's artist management firm Xtron Productions and glass maker Firna. After church auditors raised questions about the bond investments, an additional $26.6 million was moved around to "create the false appearance that the purported sham bond investments had been redeemed" in what the accounting industry calls "round-tripping" . The church stood by the five accused, stated that money for the investment bonds were returned to the church in full, with interest, and it did not lose any funds in the transactions, indicating that the accused "always put God and CHC first."
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