Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

City Harvest appeal: Prosecutors call for longer deterrent sentences

SINGAPORE — When Presiding Judge of the State Courts See Kee Oon sentenced six City Harvest Church (CHC) leaders last year for misappropriating S$50.6 million of church funds, he had “erred in finding” that they were not motivated by personal gain, and he had failed to hand out harsher sentences as a deterrent, the prosecution said.

City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee (right) arrives at the High Court on Thursday (Sept 15) with his wife Ho Yeow Sun. Photo: Robin Choo

City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee (right) arrives at the High Court on Thursday (Sept 15) with his wife Ho Yeow Sun. Photo: Robin Choo

Follow TODAY on WhatsApp

SINGAPORE — When Presiding Judge of the State Courts See Kee Oon sentenced six City Harvest Church (CHC) leaders last year for misappropriating S$50.6 million of church funds, he had “erred in finding” that they were not motivated by personal gain, and he had failed to hand out harsher sentences as a deterrent, the prosecution said.

Saying that the funds abused were charity funds, the prosecutors are now seeking longer sentences of five to 12 years for the six church leaders convicted of misappropriating the money and handed jail terms of between 21 months and eight years.

They are church founder Kong Hee, his former second-in-command Tan Ye Peng, former church board member John Lam, former church investment manager Chew Eng Han, and former church finance managers Serina Wee and Sharon Tan.

In the written submissions tendered to court earlier, the prosecution said that the first mitigating factor the trial judge “clearly gave undue weight” to was that the offenders were not motivated by personal gain.

In particular, the trial judge found that “in using (the church’s) funds for the ‘Crossover Project’, (the six) believed that they were using church funds for evangelistic purposes that were not just permitted but positively mandated by the vision and mission of CHC, and which was supported by the vast majority, if not the entirety, of the congregation”. This caused the judge to “give conversely insufficient weight … to the aggravating fact that the misappropriated monies were charity funds”, the prosecutors said. They added that the six leaders “knew exactly what outcome they were trying to achieve” and had known the risks involved if their misappropriations came to light, so they took “elaborate steps to conceal what they had done”.

The six went ahead with their conspiracies because they were confident that they had “sufficient efforts to ensure that they would not get caught”, and they were not “hapless victims of some mental illness or pathological compulsion, but calculating and determined individuals”, the prosecution said. “By holding that there was less of a need to deter people from committing offences simply because they were not motivated by personal gain, the trial judge sets a dangerous precedent, which carries a real risk of emboldening a large and undeserving class of potential offenders.”

The prosecutors are expected to argue their case next week.

Correction: An earlier version of this report wrongly reported that the six leaders were handed jail terms of between eight and 21 months. They were handed jail terms of between 21 months and eight years. We are sorry for the error.

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.