Pastor and Founder of one of Singapore's richest church has been arrested in Singapore by a Corporate Affairs Department, a police unit for embezzling of about $18m donated by members of his church.
The church, City Harvest Church boast a size of 30,000 members was registered as a charity and its one of the largest and riches churches in Singapore.
Pastor Kong Hee and four other executives were arrested for diverting $18m (SG$23m) earmarked for charitable projects and spent money on a bid by the pastor’s wife, Ho Yeow Sun, to launch an evangelical music career in the United States.
The church, which has affiliates in neighbouring Malaysia and other countries, is famous for services that resemble pop concerts.
“It’s confirmed that five persons were arrested and Kong Hee is one of them,” a police spokesman told AFP.
All five, who are out on bail, have also been suspended from their church positions.
Kong and his wife, whose whereabouts were unknown, became minor celebrities in Singapore for launching the church, which authorities estimate had a congregation of about 33,000 and net assets of Sg$103 million in 2009.
In a post on popular microblogging site Twitter on Tuesday morning, Kong tweeted a Bible Psalm in Mandarin saying God will protect him from evil.
Authorities began an investigation in 2010 after receiving complaints about the misuse of the funds, the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, which oversees charitable institutions, said in a press release.
“Financial irregularities of at least Sg$23 million from the Charity’s funds have been discovered,” it said.
“There was a concerted effort to conceal this movement of funds from its stakeholders.”
The five will be charged in court on Wednesday and if convicted, each of them could face life imprisonment as well as a fine.
Church officials contacted by AFP did not comment.
In 2009, a prominent Buddhist monk heading one of Singapore’s largest charities was jailed for six months for misappropriating hospital funds and lying about it to authorities.
