Singapore has jailed half a dozen leaders of the influential City Harvest Church, a major (39.2%) shareholder in the city’s flagship Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre.
The church leaders were convicted of fraud, in a case worth $50m Singapore dollars (US$35m).
Since the church increased its shareholding in the centre, a major refurbishment, has seen a retail portion added that includes anchor tenants such as fashion stores H&M and Uniqlo.
Suntec Singapore’s third quarter announcement this year posted revenues for the period of $23.1m, up over 35% on the same period last year.
Of that, $16.8m came from the convention business and $6.3m from retail.
The Straits Times has estimated the City Harvest stake is currently worth about $260m.
The church first got involved with Suntec Singapore in 2010, when its wholly owned subsidiary, Urban Property Investments Limited, acquired a 20% effective shareholding.
Two years later, it took up another 19.2% stake, bringing its spend on the equity stake to $97.8m.
The remaining 60.8% effective shareholding is held by Suntec Harmony, a wholly owned subsidiary of Suntec Reit.
The City Harvest Church was founded by the charismatic pastor Kong Hee and his wife, pastor turned pop singer Sun Ho, in 1989.
The fraud investigation was first launched into the church in 2010 and prosecutors outlined a convoluted money trail in which six church leaders and accountants, including Kong, funnelled S$24m from a church building fund into sham bond investments into Xtron and an Indonesian glass maker.
They were later accused of using another $26m to cover up their tracks.
The leaders insisted they were only doing ‘God’s work’.
The case represented the largest amount of charity funds ever misappropriated in Singapore’s legal history.
Ms Ho had worked with rapper Wyclef Jean and recently took over leadership of the church.
Convictions in full:
- Kong Hee, CHC founder: eight years.
- Chew Eng Han, former fund manager for the church: six years.
- Tan Ye Peng, deputy senior pastor: five years and six months.
- Serina Wee, former finance manager: five years.
- John Lam, finance committee member: three years
- Sharon Tan, former finance manager: 21 months
- All can appeal against their sentence.
