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Kong not genuinely concerned about CHC’s losses: Chew

SINGAPORE — City Harvest Church co-founder Kong Hee did not love the church, nor was he that concerned about it suffering financial loss, the church’s former investment manager Chew Eng Han argued in court yesterday.

Co-accused Chew Eng Han said Kong did not disclose his wife’s salary to members who donated to support the couple when 
he asked them 
to increase 
their donations. 
Photo. Ernest Chua

Co-accused Chew Eng Han said Kong did not disclose his wife’s salary to members who donated to support the couple when
he asked them
to increase
their donations.
Photo. Ernest Chua

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SINGAPORE — City Harvest Church co-founder Kong Hee did not love the church, nor was he that concerned about it suffering financial loss, the church’s former investment manager Chew Eng Han argued in court yesterday.

In ending his cross-examination of Kong, who is on the witness stand, Chew cited 10 reasons to support his claim, such as the lack of effort in trying to sell the copyrights to the songs for singer Ho Yeow Sun’s English album to recover some costs in the wake of Commercial Affairs Department investigations from May 2010.

Kong also allowed S$2.1 million from the church in Singapore to be sent to City Harvest Church in Kuala Lumpur to fund “love gifts” for Kong and salaries for the team involved in Ms Ho’s music career, said Chew, who had quit City Harvest last year.

The 49-year-old pastor also did not disclose the salary of his wife, Ms Ho, to church members who donated to an account supporting the couple’s livelihoods when he asked them to increase their donations and had thus “defrauded” the donors, Chew said.

Kong disagreed with the accusations, saying he could perhaps have done more to sell the copyrights of the songs for the album — which was not released — but he had “a lot on his plate” in the past four years. He said the money sent to Kuala Lumpur was allowed by the church board in support of the Malaysian entity’s building project and that he “did not engineer” its gifts to him or its support for Ms Ho’s career.

On not disclosing his wife’s salary to donors, Kong said it was church policy not to disclose staff salaries and bonuses.

Chew also argued that the church had overstated the attendance at its services, saying that given the number of weekend services and the capacity at its Singapore EXPO and Jurong West premises, attendance on weekends was closer to 13,000 than the 28,000 it had reported at the end of 2009.

Kong replied that Chew should check with the church staff who monitored attendance numbers.

Kong, Chew and four other church leaders face criminal charges for misusing church funds. They allegedly used S$24 million of building funds on sham bonds to further Ms Ho’s career and misappropriated another S$26.6 million to cover up the first amount.

Asked later by co-accused Serina Wee’s lawyer, Mr Andre Maniam, if the church’s Crossover Project to reach out to non-Christians via Ms Ho’s pop music career was “worth the price” in hindsight, Kong said it was “no doubt” worth it for its evangelical impact, despite the painful times.

Cross-examined by Deputy Public Prosecutor Christopher Ong, Kong agreed that he was a mentor to his five co-accused and said he was very close to his former second in command and co-accused Tan Ye Peng. A fellow computer science graduate eight years his junior, Tan had joined Kong’s ministry at another church in 1988 before City Harvest was founded. Kong said he was not as close to the other accused as he was to the church’s pastoral staff.

The prosecution continues to cross-examine Kong today.

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