Re: Wow! So many CHC gong kias queuing outside high court! Brainwashed and delusional
SINGAPORE: Six City Harvest Church leaders who "committed fraud of the worst kind" should be put away for longer, prosecutors argued on Wednesday (Sep 21).
They said the trial judge had been too lenient and had "abandoned and ignored" sentencing guidelines by failing to take into account the massive amount of monies involved, among other aggravating factors.
The trial judge had "untethered his sentencing from his moorings", resulting in sentences that are manifestly inadequate, prosecutors said. He had also given "undue weight" to mitigating factors, including that the offenders caused no permanent loss to the church and did not gain personally from their crimes, they argued.
Refuting the points, prosecutors said the six had "knowingly put CHC's interests (and monies) at risk" by diverting S$24 million into sham bonds, which they knew they could not repay.
They misappropriated another S$26 million to cover up the first amount so auditors would not find out. This S$26 million was "obtained through external loans", and not through any plans the six put in place to ensure no church monies would be lost, Deputy Public Prosecutor Christopher Ong told the court.
DPP Ong also pointed out the trial judge had found "Kong Hee had benefitted indirectly, because his wife Sun Ho was the direct beneficiary of the sham investments".
Prosecutors pointed to e-mails Kong sent to Ms Ho's US manager encouraging him to "plan as if the sky is the limit" for her new album, and they would "work out how we are going to get the funds later". "Let's shoot for top-of-the-line type of planning in everything we do for Sun", Kong wrote.
In reality, Ms Ho's career was being secretly bankrolled by CHC, with millions poured into her secular music career via two church-controlled companies.
The six offenders have argued that furthering Ms Ho's career was a mission of the church supported by its members, however, DPP Ong questioned whether church members knew exactly what their support entailed.
"If I offer you a Ferrari free of charge, you will take it. If I tell you I'll give you a Ferrari, but I'm using your money to pay for it - you may not be supportive of it. That's the point I'm trying to make," DPP Ong said. “They never told the congregation: ‘This is what we’re planning to do with Sun and all of you are going to pay for it to the tune of S$24 million’.”
He argued the support of the congregation "must be viewed in the context of what they were told". Church members were unaware they were footing the bill, because Kong and his team repeatedly lied that no church funds were being used to fund his wife's career.
Justice Chan Seng Onn questioned whether there may have been a cheaper way to evangelise. “When you say that the church members supported the Crossover Project (Sun Ho’s secular music career), maybe I don’t have any doubt that they would have. But, of course … the means to (evangelise) can be many”, Justice Chan said.
He wondered whether the church’s evangelistic mission could have been carried out with less extravagance. “It can be Sun Ho singing, it could be engaging at a much cheaper cost, maybe a K-pop (concert), and Kong Hee can come to the concert and then preach.
"Sun Ho is doing it, buy an expensive apartment, fly first class, expend all the money, that’s another way of it, all in the name of evangelisation. There can be many means.”
The deceptive and manipulative actions of the six offenders "place their offences within a band of fraud of the worst kind", DPP Ong said, urging the court to up the prison terms of the six leaders.
