The founder of City Harvest Church Senior Pastor Kong Hee was one of the 17 people called up for questioning yesterday morning by the Commercial Affairs Department to assist in the investigations into alleged misuse of church funds.
The police also took away computers and financial records from their homes and offices, but stopped short of saying the exact offences they were investigating.
An ex-Rafflesian, Pastor Kong is a well-known preacher in Singapore and in the region. He built City Harvest Church from its humble beginnings in 1989 into a mega-church today with a congregation of more than 33,000 and reserves estimated to exceed $100 million dollars.
Besides Singapore, it also has 45 affiliate churches in Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Taiwan and Australia with a total of 48,000 members, according to a Straits Times report today.
It was rumored that a few other pastors from the church were called up for questioning as well with at least one still in detention by the police.
In the meantime, CHC released an official statement on its website saying that it “is cooperating fully with the investigation of the alleged allegations.” and church services and operations will continue normally.
It ended with a call to its followers to “keep the church in prayer” prompting one netizen to wonder “why they need prayer if they’re innocent or aren’t being persecuted.”
http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/06/01/senior-pastor-kong-hee-called-up-for-questioning-by-police/
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