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c3, c3 church, c3 oxford falls, C3OF, ccc, cccof, CHC, city harvest, kong, Kong Hee, Phil Pringle, Pringle, scandal, sham, sham bonds
Recently we recorded Channel NewsAsia reporting the following (emphasis ours):
“[…] In his oral grounds, the judge accepted that there was a plan to move
money from the church’s Building Fund to Xtron Productions and glassware firm
Firna (or PT The First National Glassware), for the purpose of funding Ms
Ho’s singing career.
The court accepted that there is evidence to show that the monies were moved
from the church to the various firms to generate a false appearance that the
church’s investments were redeemed.
The judge said the six had been dishonest in the use of the money. […]” [Source]
The last sentence will be the one that keeps Phil Pringle of the C3 Movement et al awake at night: the judge has come right out and stated that the defendants have been dishonest. His judgement re. the “no case to answer” appeal has taken the case exactly where we expected it might – it is now well and truly into “reversal of the onus of proof” territory, and it’s hard to see any of the accused wriggling out of their predicaments. (In addition, if anyone was going to get off due to connections / bribery / corruption of some form or another, this would have been the most likely juncture for it to happen – it now appears that the miscreants are strapped in for the ride, which should be all downhill for them from here).
Now TodayOnline reports,
Judge rejects bid to clear CHC leaders of charges
SINGAPORE — The bid by the City Harvest Church (CHC) leaders facing criminal charges to walk away without mounting a defence has failed, after the courts rejected their contention that prosecutors had not done enough to make a case against them.
Sufficient evidence has been adduced to support every element of the charges of criminal breach of trust and falsification of accounts against the six, presiding judge of the State Courts See Kee Oon ruled yesterday.
“At the close of the prosecution’s case, there is no need for the court to be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty. It suffices that a court could reasonably convict on the evidence adduced by the prosecution,” he said.
With Mr See’s decision, the trial will stretch beyond the one-year mark and all six accused — church co-founder Kong Hee, his deputy Tan Ye Peng, Chew Eng Han, John Lam, Serina Wee and Sharon Tan — have indicated they will take the witness stand when hearing resumes, likely in July. Chew, the church’s former investment manager who has since left, added through his lawyer that he intends to call witnesses.
The six had argued to be cleared of their charges without having to enter a defence, contending that the prosecution’s case was “piecemeal” and a “cut-and-paste” job. In rebuttal, prosecutors had asserted that the dots in its case against the church leaders connected in a natural, coherent and powerful manner.
Yesterday, Mr See addressed the points of contention between the defence and prosecution in detail. “Some dots are smaller; some are larger. When attempting to connect them, there may be clusters, trails and other patterns, some less granular and some more clearly discernible. The focus of my enquiry is whether a reasonably coherent picture has emerged thus far in support of all the ingredients of the charges,” the judge said.
Referring to a defence lawyer’s argument that the prosecution’s case has been made up of “emails, emails, emails stitched together”, Mr See said: “I am conscious that a reasonable inference is one that coheres with the totality of the documentary and oral evidence, and not merely with the email itself. I also bear in mind that a single email can generate multiple conflicting reasonable inferences, some favourable and others unfavourable to the prosecution.”
On the prosecution’s charge that the accused engaged in various conspiracies, the judge noted that evidence is “largely documentary rather than oral” and that the involvement of some of the accused is less obvious than that of others. But there is, nonetheless, evidence to support the prosecution’s contention, he said.
On the element of misappropriation, which must be fulfilled for criminal breach of trust, the judge said there is evidence to show that sham, or false, investments took place.
“I should add that, even if one does not use the word ‘sham’, the evidence suggests the so-called investments were not genuine investments, but were merely disguises for something else,” he added.
Source: Judge rejects bid to clear CHC leaders of charges, TodayOnline, http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/judge-rejects-bid-clear-chc-leaders-charges?singlepage=true, PUBLISHED: MAY 6, 4:13 AM, UPDATED: MAY 6, 4:15 AM. (Accessed 06/05/2014.)
Read a similar story here:
Judge rejects bid to clear CHC leaders of charges
C3 Church Watch 
Wow after what the judge said ,how can Kong Hee still say that he maintains his credibility !!! I think Kong Hee is delusional and actually believes they have all done no wrong!!.Money taken and spent by these people on a Movie/Rock star lifestyle for the Sung Ho the wife has gone, spent, wasted, paid for all sorts of lavish things , and then to hide the misappropriation and their tracks they took more funds from the church funnelled it through some dodgy transactions to make it look like the original funds were paid back with interest!!! These people are a joke and Phil Pringle tells people that the funds were paid back with interest !!?? So where is the crime he says !!?? Pringle stands by Kong Hee !! and doesn’t tell his church members anything about the true facts and asks for money to help Kong Hee ,in my opinion its all a big con job by these people on church members at CHC and C3.
Its all about money and power their churches are a business for them with no transparency or accountability.
I wonder if Phil Pringle will ever release the C3 Church Financial Accounts at least on a yearly basis ?? I understand and was told that late last year at a Tuesday night Church Leaders meeting he said he would release them in Feb 2014 , all hot air !!?? I seriously believe they will NEVER be released to ALL C3 church members freely, too much to hide maybe??.
Ha ha release financials? No way. And if they ever do they I would bet that won’t be fully audited accounts, but high level summaries that don’t tell you anything and likely misrepresent.
The only way to protect innocent but gullible Christians from the ravenous wolves of church pastors is to explain from biblical perspectives that tithes in New Testament age is not required, and is certainly not to be paid to false teachers. Can someone please do this?
I suggest anyone even *slightly* questioning tithing, or having a tingle in the spirit about it – to check out Russ Kelly’s teachings. It will set you free. It will lift a burdeon off your shoulders (and as with me, physically felt). Not his teachings, but the Word.
An excellent article on tithing:
http://www.inplainsite.org/html/tithing.html
To rouse religious sentiments and sympathy – by making a fictitious case of religious persecution by Singaporean authorities….conjuring sounds of police sirens for his preaching “faith”….one wonders what “faith” he is preaching that will get attention from the authorities? Is this how Israel Houghton (just concluded conference this year), John Revere, and others are hookwinked into thinking this is all about religious persecution and not about KH’s fraudulent charges?
Is he saying there is no religious freedom in Singapore?
Watch this:
Is this a man of integrity?
As per always he includes “finances” in his prayer, “the money will come, business will come”… just as soon as to give a bit more to the building love offering tithing fund!
I refer this is Phil’s recent interview with CHC’s news arm:
“I read a blog by a woman—Sanses. She was very positive towards the church. I thought she did a really good job. I thought it’s so simple, like man-on-the-street talk. She’s going like, “What am I missing here? The church invested $25m, and now it’s got it all back with interest. Church didn’t lose any money, what am I missing? Why are these people in court?”
…..#footinhole
Squidaloopa, Pringle knows what Kong Hee and friends got up to he will have been briefed by lawyers working for CHC , or he is either totally ignorant and doesn’t understand the transactional flow of events leading to the charges or its just spin and dishonesty to help hide the true facts , why they don’t just admit their wrong actions and repent now is just amazing because if this goes all the way it will be disaster for all concerned not only for CHC members but for all Christian’s reputations, the unsaved peoples of the world will paint Churches/Christians with the same brush , this is my greatest fear.
Because admitting guilt means jail time at this point. And lose all credibility, and future livelihood. Who would follow a convicted pastor? Singapore is not America.
Chris – I agree with you. When the Yongi Cho affair came to light earlier this year and he and several of his own family members were found guilty of financial misdealings, the first thing I thought of was the Christians in North Korea.
What kind of persecution they may already be enduring is sometimes beyond our thoughts to cope with – torture, homelessness, and sometimes execution, and failing that, years spent in labour camps for their stand on the Gospel.
Now with the ‘Cho factor’ added in, the communists must be having a field day trying to maximise their propaganda machine to show “just how evil and untrustworthy these Christian pastors can be”. I can just see the cogs of their printing press turning already, in order to discredit the Church of Jesus Christ.
I wonder if Cho and his inner ministry team ever thought that the fallout of such a disaster could reach across the border, and make life that much harder for their brethren on the other side?
Pardon me for being so crude, but… it looks like “pastor Rambo” has been jumping over more backyard fences than he should’ve…
Of course, Coolangatta is in Queensland and Tweed Heads is just over the border in NSW – so under those circumstances, a hurried “border crossing” wouldn’t be too hard if you had to disappear in a hurry… because you were ‘moving on in God’…
thanks for the link austin..didn’t know about that one. The problem is these ‘business’ people think and act like a corporation, not like a ‘church’. They take the CEO thing far more seriously than being a ‘shepherd’ because CEO’s are more ‘legal’, sound better, and if they get caught..? Bring in the lawyer. Imagine if Simon Magus being decided to sue the Apostle Peter for defamation.