The pastor of a Singapore megachurch was convicted of fraud on Wednesday, with a judge finding that he had used millions in church funds to promote his wife's pop music career.
The pastor, Kong Hee, of City Harvest Church, and five other church officials were convicted of charges related to the misuse of $36 million (about €32 million)to support the career of Kong’s wife, Ho Yeow Sun, a singer who is also known as Sun Ho.
The six church leaders were indicted in 2012, and their 140-day trial has been followed closely in Singapore, which is known for aggressively prosecuting corruption cases.
Kong and the other leaders, who were convicted of varying counts of criminal breach of trust, face up to 20 years in prison.
No date has been set for their sentencing.
“The accused persons chose to engage in covert operations and conspiratorial cover-ups,” Judge See Kee Oon said.
“They contrived to create cover stories and clever round trips concealing their unlawful conduct.”
Ho released several Mandarin-language albums in Taiwan and an English-language album aimed at the US market,which included China Wine, a 2007 song on which she collaborated with Wyclef Jean.
Church funding
The church funded Ho’s first Mandarin albums, and in 2007, Kong tried to conceal those payments after a church member complained about how the donations had been used, the judge found.
Money from the church’s building fund was ostensibly put into bonds, but was in fact used to promote Ho’s albums and career.
Additional funds were used in an effort to conceal the initial fraudulent investments, the court ruled.
The judge said that the defendants all believed that they were acting in the best interests of the church and that there was no evidence of wrongful gain.
Church leaders believed that Ho’s music career could help the church expand its membership, according to news reports in Singapore.
Kong founded the Pentecostal church in 1989, and his ministry emphasised the material wealth that could come from spiritual devotion.
Over 2-and-a-half decades, the church expanded drastically, with 15 weekend worship services and a reported membership of more than 17,000 as of last year.
It has 50 affiliate churches with an additional 27,000 members, mostly in Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan.
Ho, who was not charged, said she was “disappointed by the outcome”, according to a statement posted on the church’s website.
The six defendants are studying the judgment and awaiting advice from their lawyers, said Ho, who is the church’s executive director.
“More than ever before, let’s have a unity that is unbreakable,” she wrote.
“We are not alone, as many of our friends and churches around the world are also interceding fervently for us.”
New York Times service