Moses can't cross the Red Sea! City Harvest Church needed Sampan 3.0 very badly, waited loong time!

[tun_dr_m]

https://www.todayonline.com/singapo...anted-leave-singapore-early-october-last-year

Former CHC leader Chew Eng Han wanted to leave Singapore as early as October last year
By Alfred Chua

TODAY file photoChew Eng Han, a former fund manager with City Harvest Church, is claiming trial on two charges — one for attempting to leave the country illegally, and another for trying to avoid serving his sentence for an earlier offence of criminal breach of trust.
Published24 September, 2018
Updated 24 September, 2018

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SINGAPORE — Adamant that he "did not want to be convicted" and sent to jail, and feeling a sense of "injustice and (unfairness)" over his court case, former leader of City Harvest Church (CHC) Chew Eng Han had contemplated leaving the country on multiple occasions.
At the start of his trial on Monday (Sept 24), the court heard that the 58-year-old had toyed with the idea of skipping town as early as October last year.
The former fund manager with CHC — who was convicted for criminal breach of trust and falsification of accounts involving more than S$50 million of church funds in 2015 — was due to start serving his sentence on Feb 22 this year. But on Feb 21, he was arrested for trying to flee the country on a motorised sampan.
Chew has claimed trial to two charges — one for attempting to leave the country illegally, and another for trying to avoid serving his sentence for an earlier offence of criminal breach of trust.
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Now serving his sentence for criminal breach of trust, Chew appeared in court on Monday (Sept 24) dressed in a purple prison garb and wearing a pair of black-framed spectacles.
He chose not to give evidence on the stand and there were no other defence witnesses called. He will return to court on Nov 13.
The prosecution made the case that Chew had already attempted to leave the country in boarding the motorised sampan from Pulau Ubin, which was headed for an agreed-upon location north-east of the island, from where he would board a second boat to head to Malaysia.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Christopher Ong and Eugene Sng are also arguing that in seeking to leave the country to "entirely avoid serving his sentence", Chew was attempting to defeat the course of justice.
Three Police Coast Guard officers took the stand as part of the prosecution's case.
CHEW'S ATTEMPT TO LEAVE SINGAPORE
In October last year, Chew looked around for ways to leave the country illegally, and got acquainted with Khoo Kea Leng, a Malaysian freelance driver who regularly ferried people between Singapore and Malaysia.
Khoo initially offered to set him up with contacts who could get him to Johor Baru illegally by car at a cost of S$18,000, but Chew declined.
Chew re-contacted Khoo sometime on Feb 20 this year, to ask if Khoo could help him leave Singapore by boat. He was told to fork out some S$12,000 and asked to prepare fishing equipment to disguise himself.
The plan was to head into Johor Baru via two boats. Chew handed S$8,000 to Khoo, and was told to pass the other S$4,000 to the second boatman who would take him into Malaysia.
On Feb 21, Chew set off from Changi Village to Pulau Ubin jetty, where he boarded a boat piloted by boatman Tan Poh Teck.
Tan was to take him to four fish farms north-east of Pulau Ubin, close to the boundary between Singapore and Malaysia, where Chew was to board a second boat into Malaysia.
But at around 8.43am, their boat was intercepted by Police Coast Guard officers in the vicinity of Chek Jawa Wetlands and Pulau Sekudu, and Chew was later arrested.
ACCOMPLICES IN THE ATTEMPTED ESCAPE

• 
  Malaysian freelance driver Khoo Kea Leng: Sentenced to six months' jail in April for abetting Chew, by conspiring with him on Feb 20 to map out how to leave Singapore from Pulau Ubin, which is an unauthorised point of departure.
  
• 
  Singaporean boatman Tan Poh Teck: Sentenced to 27 weeks' jail in July, after he admitted to abetting Chew in illegally leave the country.
  
• 
  Malaysian Tan Kim Ho: Sentenced to six months' jail in July. He had made arrangements for Chew to escape Singapore from Pulau Ubin on Feb 21.
  

BACKGROUND OF THE CASE

• 
  In 2015, Chew — along with five other former CHC leaders, including church founder Kong Hee — was convicted for criminal breach of trust and falsification of accounts involving more than S$50 million of church funds. It was the biggest scandal involving a charity in Singapore's history.
  
• 
  A subsequent High Court appeal by the six leaders saw their convictions being upheld, but their sentences reduced. Chew's aggregate sentence of six years' jail was cut by nearly half.
  
• 
  Chew made two tries to challenge his conviction for criminal breach of trust but they were dismissed by the court.
  
• 
  In February this year, the Court of Appeal rejected the prosecution's bid to reinstate the longer jail terms of the six leaders. One had completed her sentence by then, while four were serving time, but Chew was on bail after seeking multiple deferments. Chew asked to defer his sentence again that month to spend Chinese New Year with his family.
  

 

[glockman]

 

[AhMeng]

Why this guy so GONG?

 

[hofmann]

Why this guy so GONG?

Pre-requiste to join the inner circle

 

[rambo22]

Why this guy so GONG?

Kong Hee and Pinky only like gong kia

if not how PAP can get 70% votes

 

[Scrooball (clone)]

All the money gone to paying clowns like Wyclef Jean to perform alongside the Ho

 

[Scrooball (clone)]

Sun who? Why Sun Ho failed to crack US market

Pastor-turned singer Ho Yeow Sun, also known as Sun Ho, performing at a concert on June 1, 2006.TNP FILE PHOTO
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Wife of City Harvest Church founder could not replicate her Asian pop success in the US

Oct 25, 2015 06:00 am
Ho Yeow Sun wanted to be a pop star but also someone who could use her celebrity status to promote the church she co-founded with her husband, Kong Hee.

But did she have a real shot at making it big?
By 2002, she had already scored a number of hits in the Mandopop scene and had a following in Taiwan.
While her fortunes were good in Asia, her attempt to make it in the US was followed by a police complaint here alleging misuse of church funds and a trial that led to six church leaders being found guilty of fraud.

And among the six was her husband, who helped engineer and support her singing career.

The music business can be a cut-throat industry and Sun Ho's (her pop moniker) team may have been naive in their westward push.

SINGAPORE
City Harvest trial: All six guilty
Oct 21, 2015
For one thing, the timing was off, says US music career consultant Robert A. Case.

He says: "I've never even heard of any of her music. If I had $24 million back then, I wouldn't even put the money in the music business."

He tells The New Paper on Sunday that Ms Ho entered the market at a bad time as the US music industry was in a downwards spiral. She had moved to the US in 2003 to carve out her singing career.

But in 2003, the emergence of online music services such as the iTunes Store was killing off the retail music industry there, says Mr Case.
Many upcoming independent artists failed to see that and simply kept on spending.

For her, the seven years in the US were the glamorous years. She received personal dance lessons from top choreographers and worked with top artists, directors and producers for her music videos.
She was even invited to an awards show.

PAYING TO GET A BREAK
But where she had success in the East, her team had to pay for her to work with personalities just to get a break in the US.

A total of $24 million in church funds was spent on Ms Ho's singing career.

E-mails revealed in court showed that US$1.5 million (S$1.9 million) went to rapper Wyclef Jean. Another US$1.5 million was for rapper Missy Elliott to get her to appear in Ms Ho's music videos, in the "worst-case scenario".

The money spent also got her the chance to work with veteran record producer and 16-time Grammy Award winner David Foster, who helped produce her debut English single, Where Did Love Go.
The song reached the top spot of Billboard's dance breakout chart.

But Mr Case, who has managed several artists who made it to the Grammy Entry List, in categories such as Best New Artist and Album of the Year, said making the charts is also "useless" if she was unable to capitalise on the momentum.

"So she charted on the Billboard. That's cool. But if she didn't have the team or the experience to go out and follow up on this success, then it doesn't matter," says the consultant, who has been in the business for 28 years.

The chart is also not representative of success, says London-based freelance actor Alex Liang.

The Billboard dance chart is compiled from reports from a nationwide panel of club DJs, detailing the tracks that elicit the most audience response, according to the Billboard website.

Says Mr Liang: "It really reflects the opinions of a relatively small handful of DJs in the US who are willing to play these songs, so while it is nice to be popular among this small group of influential DJs, it doesn't necessarily translate into commercial success."

Mr Liang wrote a scathing review of Ms Ho's US endeavours from his perspective as a freelance entertainer on his popular blog, Limpeh Is Foreign Talent. The UK citizen has worked on music videos alongside Madonna, Duffy and Mylo.

'Right song, production & image more important'
Sun Ho had signed on with David Foster's record company, Tonos Entertainment, in 2003.
He said of the singer: "I am happy to report that I have given up being financially driven many years ago... When you do things for money, it will never work out. Ever."
But cracks emerged soon after.
By Sept 2003, Tonos was out of business and Ms Ho had moved on to work with Wyclef and Mr Justin Herz of JH Music.

Mr Gingio Muehlbauer, founder of several international artist management firms, believes it is unnecessary for newcomers to collaborate with established stars.
"The right song, production and image is way more important.
"Take (Korean singer) Psy for example, he used a dance move, a beat and a fun video to get there," says Mr Muehlbauer.

While Ms Ho did assemble established production teams which included Mr Foster and Wyclef, they took a big chunk of the budget, says Mr Muehlbauer.

Speaking in general, he says that it is common for Asian artists with large budgets to spend millions without any guarantee of success.
"It's all about people. I think it is very clear that Sun Ho got connected to the wrong people instead of starting with a humble beginning, with very talented and humble people."

Collaborating with high-profile artists can still be a good thing for newcomers as it would bring them exposure and establish their credibility, says Mr Case.
But there is a caveat. The music still has to be good.
"You can be working with the greatest producer in the world but a piece of crap will still be crap," he says.

Mis Ho's singing career ended in 2010 after the police began probing into misuse of funds at CHC.
Her swansong was an English single, Fancy Free, in 2009. It was meant for an album that never materialised.
June 26, 2012, changed everything.
Her husband, Kong Hee, and five other senior CHC members were arrested that day.
All six were found guilty of misusing $24 million to fund her singing career and another $26 million to cover it up.
She found out during her husband's trial that her earlier success may have been overstated too.

UNSOLD ALBUMS
Her apparent success in the Mandarin-speaking market also turned out to be unfounded as church members had to fork out $500,000 to buy 32,500 of her unsold albums.

Two of her Mandarin albums made losses of almost $1 million, the court heard.

In his 270-page written judgment, Judge See Kee Oon criticised Kong Hee saying he had exaggerated the success of his wife's music career.
The trial ended her pop career. But to followers at her church, she remains a star.

On Oct 19, Kong posted on Facebook that Ms Ho had been ordained as a pastor. She was back to where she started all those years ago.
Ms Ho declined to be interviewed when asked.
- NG JUN SEN

She wouldn't succeed in the US

Her provocative music video, China Wine, caused a stir in 2007. It showed a scantily clad Sun Ho gyrating to the music.
Mr Gingio Muehlbauer, who also has a management firm in Los Angeles where Ms Ho was once based, saw the video for the first time last week. He found it wanting.
"Sun aka Geisha, what a confusing name. She is a new artist and already she has two names," he says.
"The message is not clear. The title of the single is also poor."
There were other warning signs that Ms Ho would not be successful in the US, adds Mr Robert A. Case.
He explains: "(Foreign) artists have to be established in their regions first."

Alex Liang agrees, pointing out that even K-pop bands such as 2NE1 and Wonder Girls had limited success in the US.
He says: "The Wonder Girls had so much support from the Korean-American community and still failed. So what made Sun Ho think she could succeed where others have failed?"

- NG JUN SEN
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[halsey02]

Hong Hee Fatt Choy....when he sees those 'knockers' live....he must be shouting " oh my god, oh my god".....