10/22/2018 City Harvest Church trial: Kong Hee sentenced to 8 years' jail, Singapore News - AsiaOne

City Harvest Church trial:

Kong Hee sentenced to 8
years' jail

According to The Straits Times, the six are most

likely to be sentenced today.

ASIAONE Nov 20, 2015

SINGAPORE - The City Harvest Church

(CHC) trial, which spanned almost three
years, has finally concluded, with six of its
leaders being sentenced at 3pm on Friday (Nov
20).

According to media reports, founder and senior

pastor Kong Hee has been sentenced to eight
years of jail. Deputy senior pastor Tan Ye Peng
has been sentenced to five years six months' jail,
while former church investment committee
member John Lam has been sentenced to three
years' jail.

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10/22/2018 City Harvest Church trial: Kong Hee sentenced to 8 years' jail, Singapore News - AsiaOne

The church's former finance manager Serina

Wee was given a sentence of five years in
prison, while her colleague Sharon Tan received
the lightest sentence of 21 months in prison.

Former church investment committee member

Chew Eng Han received six years' jail, but he
has told the court that he will appeal.

Sentences will commence on Jan 11, 2016.

City Harvest trial

verdict: All six accused
found guilty of all
charges

Channel NewsAsia reported that Judge See Kee

Oon, in sentencing the leaders, said Kong Hee
was the most culpable, followed by Tan Ye Peng,
Chew Eng Han, Serina Wee, and John Lam.

According to earlier reports, prosecution was

seeking a sentence of 11 to 12 years' jail for
Kong Hee, eight to nine years' for John Lam,

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10/22/2018 City Harvest Church trial: Kong Hee sentenced to 8 years' jail, Singapore News - AsiaOne

about 11 to 12 years for both Tan Ye Peng, Chew

Eng Han and Serina Wee; and about five to six
years for Sharon Tan.

All six were found guilty on Oct 21 of all charges

ranging from criminal breach of trust and
falsifying accounts.

CHC trial: Supporters

queue up overnight,
ahead of sentencing

Channel NewsAsia reported that the defence

appealed for lighter sentences, citing that they
were acting in the interests of the church.

However, the prosecution side submitted that

"each of the accused persons played their
respective roles in a conspiracy with intent to
cause wrongful loss to CHC and to defraud the
auditors".

"They did not merely wait passively for Kong Hee

to instruct them to carry out each specific act and
deception needed to drive the conspiracy
forward. They took their own initiative to deceive
and mislead the trusting members of CHC where

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10/22/2018 City Harvest Church trial: Kong Hee sentenced to 8 years' jail, Singapore News - AsiaOne

necessary, and cannot escape responsibility for

those acts."

debwong@sph.com.sg

More about
City Harvest Trial

news Purchase this article for

POST republication.

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