6 City Harvest Church leaders found guilty on all charges

SINGAPORE — After a trial lasting 140 days and more than five years after investigations began, six City Harvest Church (CHC) leaders were today (Oct 21) found guilty of misappropriating S$50.6 million of church funds.

The long-running saga surrounding the mega church and pop singer Sun Ho — who is not among the accused — had made headlines here and abroad. Hours before the hearing today, a queue had formed outside the court and a crowd, including CHC supporters, were unable to get into the packed courtroom.

Delivering his 15-page oral judgement in less than an hour, Presiding Judge of the State Courts See Kee Oon called out the CHC leaders’ “covert operations and conspiratorial cover-ups” and said he was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that they were guilty of all charges levelled against them. They will be sentenced later and at least one of the accused has said he would be appealing against the verdict.

Church founder Kong Hee, his deputy Tan Ye Peng, former church investment manager Chew Eng Han, former church accountant Serina Wee Gek Yin, former church finance manager Sharon Tan Shao Yuen and former church board member John Lam Leng Hung faced three to 10 charges each of criminal breach of trust and/or falsification of accounts.

Each of them faces up to 10 years’ jail and a fine for each charge. In the meantime, they are out on bail of S$750,000 to about S$1 million each.

The CHC leaders were convicted of misusing S$24 million of the church’s building fund for sham bond investments, and of circulating another S$26.6 million of church funds to create the false impression that the earlier investments had been redeemed.

The sham bond investments, made between 2007 and 2009, were conceived first and foremost to support the church’s “Crossover Project”, where the secular pop music of church co-founder and Kong’s wife Ho Yeow Sun, or Sun Ho as she is popularly known, was used to evangelise.

The prospect of any financial return was a “secondary consideration at best and even then I do not accept that they genuinely believed that the sale of Sun Ho’s music albums would generate sufficient profit for CHC to enjoy financial return”, the judge said.

Kong, Chew, Tan Ye Peng, Lam and Wee knew much of Ms Ho’s earlier success was “contrived and contributed to by CHC itself”. Any sales projection beyond 200,000 for her English album — part of her foray into the United States — was “no more than an optimistic hope”, he said.

They knew CHC’s own money might need to be channelled to her artiste management firm Xtron Productions to redeem the bond investments; the same applied to bond investments made in church member Wahju Hanafi’s Indonesian glassware firm, PT The First National Glassware.

Arguments that the investments served the dual purpose of missions and investment were “creative labels tacked on in an attempt to strain and stretch the plain meaning of the word ‘investment’”, the judge added. “I am not convinced that there was any ‘mixed motive’, ‘dual purpose’ or ‘hybrid’ intent behind the use of the (building fund) … They were plainly fabricated in an attempt to justify their past conduct and misuse of the (building fund).”

The round-tripping transactions, made in 2009 and which also involved Xtron and Firna, were not genuine because the accused persons controlled them every step of the way, and the church was essentially channelling money through various conduits to pay itself, the judge ruled.

Tan Ye Peng, Chew, Wee and Sharon Tan knew that false accounting entries would have to be made to create the appearance of redemption of bonds, he said.

Where they consulted professionals such as lawyers and auditors, this was only to seek out self-supporting confirmatory advice based on selectively disclosed information, Judge See said. The extensive records produced in court suggest that the six leaders were “overconfident in their belief that they could replace the funds in time before suspicions were aroused”, he added.

The six had said they love City Harvest Church and had pure motives and a justifiable purpose in use of the church’s funds, with the money ultimately returned to the church, noted Judge See. But the evidence points “overwhelmingly” to a finding that they had all acted dishonestly and in breach of the trust reposed in them. They conspired with intent to cause wrongful loss to the church and to defraud its auditors, the judge said.

Judge See observed that Lam, Chew, Wee and Sharon Tan were all acting in accordance with instructions of those they considered their spiritual leaders, “deserving of their trust and deference”. Tan Ye Peng, although a leader in his own right, similarly trusted completely the leadership of Kong.

With the unquestioning trust and belief in Kong and the confidence that the Crossover would succeed, they convinced themselves that it was both morally and legally permissible to temporarily use the church’s funds when they knew it was not, he said.

“But no matter how pure the motive or how ingrained the trust in one’s leaders, regardless of the context in which that trust operates, these do not exonerate an accused person from criminal liability if all the elements of an offence are made out,” said the judge.

“In my judgment all the elements of the relevant offences have indeed been made out.”

With the conviction, the parties will now argue on sentencing, with the next court date on Nov 20.

Post-verdict, the mood in the courtroom — where supporters included Ms Ho and Sydney-based pastor Phil Pringle — was sombre.

Chew said he would appeal while most of the others said they would study the judgment before deciding.

Said Lam: “It has been a very long trial … Someone prudent would have been prepared for this verdict. But, of course, we always believed in acquittal, but were prepared for conviction, which is the case now.”

Wee was last to leave the State Courts at about 12.30pm as her bail amount was increased. Accompanied by husband Kenny Low, she said: “I just wish to thank my family, friends and church members. I think they have given us great support.”