Friday, August 15, 2014

Kong didn’t want church to directly fund wife’s music career, co-accused tries to show (Today: 15 Aug 2014)

SINGAPORE — Back in 2003 after City Harvest Church had been rocked by a member’s allegation that church funds were being used for pop singer Ho Yeow Sun’s career — for which an apology was made — several church board members were in favour of the church funding her upcoming album directly, documents produced in court showed.

Former church investment manager Chew Eng Han, one of six leaders accused of misusing church funds for Ms Ho’s career, was cross-examining church co-founder and fellow accused Kong Hee today.

In a July 2003 email among three accused who were former board members, John Lam asked Chew and Tan Ye Peng if church funds could be used for Ms Ho’s third Mandarin album. Chew said he was open to it.

But it was Kong who preferred not to do so, as it could create problems with the church reaching out to certain countries and the perception that Ms Ho, his wife, could not make it on her own as a secular singer without the church’s help, Chew sought to show. Chew said he deferred to Kong’s preference.

The six accused persons are charged for using S$24 million of church funds on sham bonds for Ms Ho’s career, then misusing another S$26.6 million to cover up the initial amount.

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