Kong was indifferent to church's losses: Chew (BT: 20 Aug 2014)

Quizzed on church monies, Kong denies Chew's points

[SINGAPORE] The former fund manager of City Harvest church yesterday charged that church founder Kong Hee was "not that concerned about the church suffering losses", contrary to what Kong had previously claimed.

This allegation surfaced as Chew Eng Han, one of the accused who is defending himself, wrapped up his questioning of his former spiritual mentor; Chew, who said he could offer evidence to support his charge, took a line of questioning to back up his point.

In this widely watched trial, Kong, Chew and four others are fighting allegations that they misused the church's building fund to support Kong's singer-wife Sun Ho's secular music career; four of the six are also accused of covering up the misuse through "sham bond investments" via round-tripping.

Yesterday, Chew drew the court's attention to Ms Ho's unreleased debut English album, which had cost the church millions to produce, and asked Kong why he had not acted to minimise the church's losses.

Kong had admitted being unsure who owned the copyright to the songs in Ms Ho's album.

Chew shot back: "I asked you, could you have liquidated the copyrights and used the money to pay back whomever had borrowed the bulk of the losses, and your reply was 'Well, if the Xtron directors tell me to do it, then I will do it'."

Chew further pointed out that Kong had refused to let Ms Ho return to the US in 2011 to promote the album.

Kong, responding, said he had been trying to balance between church duties and the legal proceedings: "We had a crisis. We needed the co-founder (Ms Ho) to be back to calm the people, and Your Honour, I think that just because I don't agree with Eng Han, it doesn't mean that I don't love the church."

Chew, keeping up his attack, said that Kong could have put his own money into the Crossover Project instead of buying properties for personal use; he added that Kong made no donations to the church.

The Crossover Project, Kong's vision, was launched to spread the gospel through his wife's music.

The court also heard that Kong had allowed the use of S$3 million in church funds to pay for the purchase of his preaching materials, such as books by him and his recorded sermons.

Kong denied this.

Chew also asked about the S$2.1 million which Kong allowed the church to send to City Harvest Kuala Lumpur, supposedly for a building project there.

Kong also denied this, and claimed later that the KL church had "independently funded" him a "love gift" of the same amount.

Chew also accused Kong of defrauding church members who had donated money to a multi-purpose account "by hiding the royalties, salaries and the bonuses" from the spreadsheet showed to them, so that these donors would be spurred to give more money.

The multi-purpose account was primarily set up to support Kong and Ms Ho, who were taken off the church's payroll in 2005. To this, Kong replied: "I kept the royalties and salaries confidential because that is the way we do it in City Harvest Church; when it comes to salaries and bonuses of any staff, we keep it confidential. I didn't defraud the givers." (so much for transparency)

Two other arguments were made by Chew - that Kong intended for Xtron to hold a church event yearly instead of every other year to milk more from the church, and that Kong had wanted to acquire a property for the church regardless of the cost.

Kong rejected these claims by Chew.

 The trial continues today, with the prosecution questioning Kong.