Tags
CHC, chc church, CHC cult, Chew Eng Han, City Harvest Church, cult, false, false teacher, false teachers, John Lam, kong, Kong Hee, money, ps kong hee, scam, scheme, schemed, Serina Wee, Sharon Tan, Tan Ye Peng, The Straits Times, Today Online, word of faith cult
A CALL TO PRAYER & ACTION
We wish to urge our readers to please pray for members of City Harvest Church. Our heart does go out to the people who are heavily involved in CHC.
Below the youtube video was the following,
“About 50 staff and members of City Harvest Church have started lining up outside the Subordinate Courts before the crack of dawn on Wednesday for the first day of a highly anticipated trial against six leaders of the church charged with fraud.
Some arrived as early as 11pm on Tuesday night in the hopes of getting a seat in what is expected to be a packed courtroom.” – SPHRazorTV, Large crowds gather outside Subordinate Courts at 6.45am for CHC trial, Published on May 14, 2013. (Accessed 15/05/2013.)
There is no doubt that City Harvest Church is a Word of Faith cult. Not to mention it has been publicly condemned as a movement that is not Christian and labeled a scam.
Because the world can see it and not the followers, heartless comments have been thrown against CHC members. While CHC members do need to be educated that they are involved in a Word of Faith cult, they do not need to belittled like this:
“As these group of dumb ass supporters of this evil church’s collaborators are just like Hitler’s children who were so willing to die with them after so many years of propaganda . The only difference between Hitler and Kong and Co is that one fought for war while the other schemed for money!” – lance lau, http://www.youtube.com/comment?lc=rK-FZ6XczVnqqxaJiTQFt36EwulRyejuz4iy4FzuzfM, 15/05/2013.
“Satan followers.
How dumb can human being get?” – pokemonyu, http://www.youtube.com/comment?lc=rK-FZ6XczVl2f1IqddImj3eDKQ-SGomARqC6D4ArJzY, 15/05/2013.
“yea queuing for satan” – nickachiu, http://www.youtube.com/comment?lc=rK-FZ6XczVkkMqKEh5cW_jAIgZbzE_VrgWf0WOZX1DI, 15/05/2013.
We are aware that we get over 500 hits a day from our Singaporean readers. If you are involved with a more reformed or conservative bible-believing church, can we encourage you to be involved in CHC members lives and lead them out of the CHC cult? Have a meal or bible study with them and lead them into the truth through humility and prayer. May these videos on Kong Hee make your task easier. They can easily be refuted using ther scripture:
Kong Hee: A Word Of Faith Heretic (Part 1)
To Christians everywhere. Please pray for the churches in Singapore to be effective in ministering to CHC members in this time. CHC memebrs are vulnerable and exposed to unfair attack in these times. They are not the enemy. False teachers like Phil Pringle and Kong Hee are. The world now have an excuse to hate Christianity because of these false teachers. Pray for God’s sheep.
THE NEWS
The Straits Times reports,
“Prosecutors for the City Harvest trial said they had evidence of a “deliberately planned” scheme by church leaders aimed at moving millions of dollars.
In their opening statement, prosecutors said that the offences committed by church pastor Kong Hee and five other church staff were not “isolated technical breaches or inadvertent occasional missteps”.
Rather, they were part of a “deliberately planned, meticulously coordinated, and carefully executed scheme which stretched over a prolonged period of time and involved the movement of millions of dollars”.
The prosecution said they would prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused are guilty of all charges. Kong Hee, and five senior members – Tan Ye Peng, Sharon Tan, Chew Eng Han, Serina Wee and John Lam Leng Hung – were arrested and charged last year for allegedly funnelling $24 million into sham bond investments to further the career of Kong’s wife, pop-singer Ho Yeow Sun between 2007 and 2008.
The money used was from the church’s Building Fund which was earmarked to build a new church.
Another $26.6 million is said to have been misappropriated to cover up the sham investments in a procedure known as “round-tripping”. This was supposedly done to throw the church’s auditors’ off “the scent of the bogus bonds”, said the prosecution.
These were not the genuine commercial transactions the accused persons made them out to be.
It is immaterial whether the accused thought the promotion of Ms Ho’s music career would further the broader objectives of the church. Rather, the question is whether diverting money from the Building Fund under the guise of purported bond investments to fund her career was an authorised use of the money, said the prosecution.
The six face varying counts of criminal breach of trust and falsifying accounts. The first offence is punishable with a life sentence, or up to 20 years in prison and a fine. The second carries a maximum of 10 years in jail, a fine or both.
The six accused have agreed to be jointly tried on all the charges against them.”
Source: Strait Times, Prosecution-City-Harvest-Church-Leaders-Had-Deliberately-Planned. (Credit to groupsects.wordpress.com for obtaining the article first.)
City New also reported the case,
Two Sides Of The Story
Posted on 15 May 2013
By The City News Team
Three years after investigations started, trial commences for six affected CHC leaders, with key differences in how the prosecution and defense wish to take the case forward
CN PHOTOS: Daniel Poh & Michael Chan.
RIGHT from first day of the trial for the six affected leaders of City Harvest Church, the prosecution and defense show major differences in how they view the case and seek to proceed.
The prosecution alleges that CHC’s senior pastor Kong Hee, pastor Tan Ye Peng, Serina Wee, Sharon Tan, John Lam and Chew Eng Han have misappropriated more than S$50 million of church funds and have committed criminal breach of trust. The accused have agreed to be jointly tried for all the charges brought against them.
The prosecution also said that the building fund of the church was inappropriately used for alleged “sham” investments in two companies Xtron and Firna to further the music career of Kong’s wife Sun Ho. In addition, the prosecution stated their defined parameters of the trial.
Before a gallery filled with more than 50 members of the public, mostly CHC members, the prosecution said it is immaterial whether the accused thought Ho’s music career would further the broader objectives of the church. Rather, deputy public prosecutor Mavis Chionh said, the issue lies with whether the building fund was used in an “authorized” manner or not. The prosecution also said it was inconsequential to the case whether Sun’s crossing over into the entertainment circle is “theologically legitimate” or not.
But the defense disagreed. The lawyers sought clarification from the prosecution on whether they equate the Crossover Project with Sun’s music career, and the defense also emphasized that since the case involves a church, theological legitimacy has to be considered, adding “as a matter of fact, there was no unlawful loss of monies by the church.”
The first prosecution witness to take the stand is Lai Baoting, a former accounting staff of CHC. She took the stand to answer questions about emails that were sent from her using an Xtron email account, before the court session broke for lunch.
The trial, which started this morning at nearly 10am, signifies a key development in a long-drawn case about the finances of CHC, which first unfolded when the Commissioner of Charities and Commercial Affairs Department launched investigations into its accounts in May 2010.
Senior Counsel N. Sreenivasan toldCity News that there are two key things to note: one, that the prosecution wants to maintain that the use of the building fund for the Crossover Project was unauthorized, but “as my learned friend Edwin Tong said in open court, the use was not unauthorized. But I won’t comment as it’s an issue before the court.”
The second key thing to bear in mind is fourfold: “The accused had no wrongful gain; there was no unlawful loss; the Church made good and there has been no dishonesty.”
Senior District Judge See Kee Oon hears the case. The trial continues this afternoon.
Source: The City News Team, City News, Two Sides Of The Story, 15/05/2013. (Accessed 15/05/2013.)
Today Online also published their article on the case here:
http://www.todayonline.com/city-harvest-execs-schemed-move-money-prosecution
C3 Church Watch 