Tags
CHC, chc scandal, City Harvest Church, court, foon daw ching, Ho Yeow Sun, Kong Hee, scandal, Sun Ho, xtron, Xtron Productions
The Online Star reports,
Internal panic within City Harvest
The Ren Ci scandal sparked an internal panic within the City Harvest Church, with church leaders frantically trying to ensure that their own investments in church-linked companies were aboveboard, a court heard.
This happened in 2008, about a year after the church had invested S$13mil (RM33.5mil) in Xtron Productions, a music production firm that was managing City Harvest co-founder Ho Yeow Sun’s singing career at the time.
Several of the six church leaders accused of misusing church funds had in fact reached out to auditor Foong Daw Ching and prepared documents about the church’s transactions for him to review.
This was shown through telephone logs and text messages which were produced by the church leaders’ defence team yesterday.
The defence also strongly suggested that Foong had in fact read and discussed one particular document with the accused.
This set out the church’s relationship to Xtron and other companies, as well as the legal risks that the financial transactions could entail.
Foong, who had earlier insisted that he did not recall seeing this document, admitted: “I would have read it and there must have been some discussion.”
Defence lawyers have been trying to prove that Foong gave the accused detailed advice about various allegedly suspect transactions, and that church leaders had followed his advice.
City Harvest founder Kong Hee, who is Ho’s husband, and five of his deputies are on trial for alleged misuse of S$50mil (RM128mil) in church funds. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network
Source: Internal panic within City Harvest, The Online Star, http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Regional/2013/09/19/Internal-panic-within-City-Harvest-Defence-Church-leaders-sought-to-ensure-investments-were-aboveb.aspx, 19/09/2013. (Accessed 23/09/2013.)
Straits Times also reports,
City Harvest trial: Kong Hee offered to step down to minimise conflict of interest
City Harvest founder Kong Hee was once so concerned about possibly bringing harm to the church that he offered to step down from its management board, said defence lawyers on Tuesday during an ongoing criminal trial into him and five of his deputies.
Kong Hee expressed his concerns about a year before a series of investments were made, which the State believes were shams meant to funnel church funds illegally to wife, Ms Ho Yeow Sun’s career. He asked auditor Foong Daw Ching in an email in 2006, whether Ms Ho receiving a salary from church-linked firm Xtron Productions would pose a problem. Xtron was managing Ms Ho’s music career at the time.
“Sun is paid totally from non-CHC (City Harvest Church) sources… (but) I’m personally very troubled as I don’t wish to bring any potential reproach to the church or its various ministry. If there is simply no way out… Sun and I are even willing to resign from the Management Board of CHC, if that would help diffuse the semblance of any conflict of interest on her part,” he wrote.
Mr Edwin Tong, defence lawyer for Kong, also tried to show that Mr Foong the auditor knew more about the investments than he let on. Several of the six accused had written e-mails saying Mr Foong had endorsed or given advice about the investments, although Mr Foong insisted that these were inaccurate.
Mr Tong said it was “incredible” that the auditor did not seem to recall reading any of the emails he had been sent regarding the transactions, given that the church was a “major” client of the firm.
Mr Foong replied that City Harvest’s audit team was led by another person at his firm whom he would have deferred to, and he had his own “heavy” portfolio of clients at the time.
Source: Feng Zengkun, City Harvest trial: Kong Hee offered to step down to minimise conflict of interest, Straits Times, http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/chc-funds-case/story/city-harvest-trial-kong-hee-offered-step-down-minimise-conflict-i, 17/09/2013. (Accessed 23/03/2013.)
C3 Church Watch 
Kong Hee is at Victory Life Church’s annual Conference today in Perth, Australia and is doing a stunning performance. Most of those people and even the Leadership there seem to have NO IDEA what he, Sun and others have been up to…..am expecting that he will happily receive a “LOVE” offering to cover the expenses of his brilliant acting career….the fleecing continues in another country……unbelievable!
The sad thing is that they are good people at VLC….a bit naive but good!
If they saw “China Wine” (a variation on the Jamaican dance hall ‘dirty wind’ that is similar to pole dancing), Kill Bill (all about revenge and murder), Fast Car (check out the Illuminati symbol at the end of this video), or the soundtrack to “You Stupid” that was not released, I doubt they would be buying Kong Hee’s hard sell about how God authorised him to release Sun to do this Crossover project bah, blah, blah….
This is why Christians need to make sure they are informed, are sensitive to the HS, and discern for themselves by knowing what the Word says and not allowing themselves to be persuaded by clever or smooth preaching unless it lines up to God’s precious Word!
Disgusted, just curious why no-one at VLC is aware of what is going on? Things have been going on for a while, surely someone there reads the news or follows things on the internet? Ditto for Yonggi Cho….
I’m sure there are those that have checked out some, or all, of the news about the court case and the reasons behind the allegations (which are: a totally inappropriate concept of what evangelism and outreach looks like, and a fascination for fame, adulation and wealth)
The standard responses in a church like this are:
1. Be quiet and just pray for Kong Hee, Sun Ho and CHC.
2. Don’t judge (walk in love and grace)
3. “I don’t want to rock the boat and be seen to be rebellious….after all surely the Pastors know what they are doing”
4. “I don’t want to look at that, as it is gossip”.
5. We need to all be in unity or the world will see us and be put off…..in other words, “Don’t reveal the churches dirty laundry to the world”
6. “We should support them at a time like this, not tear them down”
…and of course there is the great Australian past-time….”I don’t want to get involved ….it’s not my business and quite frankly I can’t be bothered as it might cost me something!”
The problem is that without accountability and discernment the Sheep are devoured, and the world sees it anyway and are disgusted and wary of such foolishness and control!
The only answer is…yes pray of course, but conduct ourselves in honesty, accountability, transparency, and allow for the Biblical process whereby those with concerns have a voice, and can approach their leaders without being rebuked or labeled as rebellious. Leaders also must be protective and alert and recognize that the people under their care are a huge responsibility….you do not just open your pulpit up to anyone who has allegations of corruption and criminal charges without checking it all out and perhaps waiting for certain court findings to be revealed.
This thought has occurred to me:
If we showed on the huge Conference screens Kong Hee’s version of the Cultural Mandate,
ie. China Wine, Kill Bill, Fast Car, You Stupid and displayed her shocking clothing at the various red carpet events…particularly that black dress with the shockingly revealing splits in the bodice, (that she herself said was purposely designed like that)
….and then played the Crossover Project multimedia presentation from CHC’s own website that justifies and supports this behaviour (saying it is a legitimate form of evangelism),
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN????
No believer could sit through that in church without squirming, and there would be many questions asked of the leaders…..mainly,
WHAT WERE YOU THINKING by allowing this to go unchallenged, without rebuking them privately, and without removing them from the speaking schedule???????
There are so many of us around the world shaking our heads in wonder at how these things go unchallenged….how they get so out of hand????
It’s because GOOD people do nothing!!!!!
Thank you for allowing me to have a voice.
PS. The time signature showing next to my posts seems to be wrong….I posted this after the Wed 25th morning session Hee preached at….as I am DISGUSTED!!!!!!!!
all is being exposed. Gods people are becoming wiser. i love the way true lovers of Jesus stand up for truth and justíce