Singapore daily The Straits Times reported Kong’s lawyer saying in court on Friday that none of the church leaders had misused the funds for personal benefit, and that the high-profile 5-year court case had taken a toll on his client. They lavished $36 million on a failed bid to turn the pastor’s glamorous wife into a global pop star, and have been convicted of misusing church funds.
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Former church management board secretary John Lam, 47, was sentenced to three yearsin prison; former finance manager Sharon Tan, 40, (21 months); board member Chew Eng Han, 55, (six years), senior pastor Tan Ye Peng, 43, (five years and six months) and former finance manager Serina Wee, 38, (five years). The remaining five were handed prison terms varying from 21 months to six years.
The charismatic leader of a Singaporean megachurch was jailed for 8 years Friday after being found guilty of misusing church funds, a few of which were squandered on the pop music career of his wife.
The founder of the popular Singapore church was found guilty Wednesday, October 21, …
They were in court yesterday for oral submissions.
State prosecutors said before sentencing it was “the largest amount of charity funds ever misappropriated in Singapore’s legal history”.
The mix of faith and fraud has fascinated tightly-regulated Singapore, where such cases are rare in an affluent city-state with little tolerance for corruption. Deputy Public Prosecutor Christopher Ong argued that they should be jailed for about five to 12 years each to reflect the gravity of their offences.
Pop music is an integral part of CHC services and the pop-music venture, dubbed the “Crossover” project, was aimed at attracting “the unchurched” across the world, particularly the youth, through Ho’s music, according to its website. Ho, who became leader of the church, was not prosecuted. CHC’s 2014 annual report said the congregation’s size was 17,522 a year ago.
An internal whistleblower also helped expose financial irregularities in the church.
The hope was that tunes – a melody with rapper Wyclef Jean depicting Ms Ho as a Chinese exotic dancer – would help propagate the gospel.
In another video, for a reggae-tinged song titled “Mr Bill”, Ho appeared as an Asian wife who sings about killing her African-American husband, played by supermodel Tyson Beckford.
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The court ruled church finances had been abused by the group to finance Kong’s wife, Sun Ho’s music profession.
