Latest: Kong Hee applies for permission to travel overseas

[Extremist]

City Harvest Church founding pastor Kong Hee, who is facing three charges of criminal breach of trust, showed up at the Subordinate Court on Monday to apply for permission to travel overseas.

He is understood to be travelling soon around the region for pastoral engagements.

His lawyers from Allen & Gledhill declined to reveal how much more bail had to be paid, or his travel dates and itinerary.

Mr Kong, 47, is out on $500,000 bail. He and five other senior members of the church will have their case, which revolve around the misuse of over $50 million in church funds, on Aug 30.

 

[Extremist]

Letting him travel at this point, when he is facing multiple charges amounting to life sentences will be a major mistake by the courts. The chances of jumping bail is very high and the public really wants some resolution to this issue.....

Allowing him to travel will complicate matters alot...especially when he is charged with CBT and will allow him to engage in 'transactions' which may help him cover his tracks further.

 

[Mdm Tang]

.


Application Approved ?

if run road how ?

Then all cases closed ?

 

[myfoot123]

Sign of planning for an escape since his family has bought millions of real estate in america with all the church funds at his disposal. Surely, he doesn't need to return to Singapore and still earn his keep performing the same stunt overseas - outside Singapore jurisdiction. I am sure he will leave all the job to his lawyers and if he is found guilty there is no need to come back and serve his life time sentence, if he is free from charge he might return to claim credibility. Yup, wise choice to run first and talk later. High flight risk alert. Will our kangaroo bite the bait again?

 

[Narong Wongwan]

If he can liquidate his hundreds if millions he can run road anything

 

[ChaoPappyPoodle]

City Harvest Church founding pastor Kong Hee, who is facing three charges of criminal breach of trust, showed up at the Subordinate Court on Monday to apply for permission to travel overseas.

He is understood to be travelling soon around the region for pastoral engagements.

His lawyers from Allen & Gledhill declined to reveal how much more bail had to be paid, or his travel dates and itinerary.

Mr Kong, 47, is out on $500,000 bail. He and five other senior members of the church will have their case, which revolve around the misuse of over $50 million in church funds, on Aug 30.

It's ridiculous that he even has the audacity to ask for such an allowance. If he is allowed to go and he does not come back, he will be made a martyr by his international pool of religious scoundrels. This guy has multiple life sentences awaiting him as a possibility. It will be absurd to allow him to travel knowing that he has funds and contacts overseas that will allow him to lead a comfortable life without coming back home.

 

[Kinana]

Unlikely to run road but if he does, it is also good because tax payers don't have to pay for this expensive trial n jailing him.

 

[Cestbon]

KH facing life time jail term. How can granted him permit???

 

[Jumong]

But he has God, who can stop him ?

 

[hokkien]

Could it be the govt close one eye and let him run?

 

[Tension68]

Could it be the govt close one eye and let him run?

bro, i second to agree wif ur thoughts... very.. highly suspicious if his application to travel is approved.
And if anyone believes that he WON'T jump bail.. let's haf a bet if he goes overseas la..

 

[songsongjurong]

EXIT strategy, KH one way ticket....to freedom...
somebody is gonna be 大伯公 for him

 

[lianbeng]

lianbeng noted he's waiting for angels to rescue him.
Prophet Elijah was running when God sent chariots of fire -angels on fire wheels- to bring him to heaven.

 

[ChaoPappyPoodle]

If Kong Hee has been charged with breach of trust with funds from a charity then his bail money should be questioned in greater light. If the same charity that he is being charged with abusing its funds then him using its funds to oblige his bail should not only be questioned but likely be left aside as null and void and a proper bail be asked for and set aside.

If Kong Hee for some reason becomes a fugitive upon being granted leave of absence in our jurisdiction and it is later found out that his bail was put forth by the very same charity or individuals involved in this same case then the courts will have a near impossible task explaining the manner with which they have tasked themselves towards their duties to ensure that justice is served. This is a case between the people and Kong Hee and as such should not be taken lightly.

While we do not have information on how the court has proceeded thus far nor how it will proceed we are all comfortable in thought that the court has exercised due diligence in all of its actions with respect to this case thus far and that similar due diligence will be in place in allowing or disallowing Kong Hee's latest request.

 

[NoNewsGood]

Good that he run road and never come back.

Let him deal with the greedy mafia overseas.

 

[steffychun]

Kong can travel overseas but Chee can't?

Anyway I never liked Chee

 

[Mdm Tang]

Good that he run road and never come back.

Let him deal with the greedy mafia overseas.

.


Just In : FM 93.8 live : Application to Travel overseas granted. ET declined to say Bail upped by how much.

 

[Kinana]

Chee got go Taiwan to eat wind.

 

[Extremist]

SINGAPORE: City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee, who's accused of the misuse of church funds to help his wife, Sun Ho's music career, turned up at the Subordinate Courts on Monday afternoon.

In an email reply to queries, Kong's lawyer, Edwin Tong said his client was in court to ask for permission to leave the country.

While it's not known where Kong is going, Mr Tong confirmed that the court has granted the application and bail has been raised.

He did not say how much the bail was increased to.

Kong was last out on bail of S$500,000.

Kong is one of six members of the church to face charges in what's believed to be the largest financial scandal to hit Singapore's charity sector to date.

Last week, former finance manager of City Harvest Church, Serina Wee Gek Yin, was charged with 10 counts of criminal breach of trust and falsifying accounts.

Last month, ‪‪Kong and four members - Chew Eng Han, Sharon Tan, Tan Ye Peng and John Lam - were charged with misappropriating money from the church's building fund.

Some S$24 million was allegedly transferred from the church's building fund account to two companies as bond investments.

These were alleged to be "sham transactions" meant to mask the diversion of the church's building fund, to finance the music career of Ho.

A further sum of S$26.6 million was allegedly used to create the impression that the sham bonds had been fully "redeemed", a process called "round-tripping".

- CNA/cc

 

[Hwheels]

S$500k is peanuts for ppl like KHee is he really does decide to run road (since thousands are still happily contributing to the kitty). Maybe affiliated churches will gladly take him in and give him new lease of life.