Singapore - A Singapore court has sentenced the founder of a popular church to eight years in jail for misappropriating $35 million to support his wife’s singing career.
Kong Hee, the senior pastor of City Harvest Church, was found guilty last month on three counts of criminal breach of trust.
Prosecutors said Kong, together with five other church leaders, siphoned off 24 million Singapore dollars ($17 million) through sham bond investments. They used another 26 million Singapore dollars ($18 million) to hide the first embezzlement from auditors, a rare case of corruption of such magnitude in Singapore.
Kong’s supporters have long said they hoped her music would attract people to the church.
But at Friday’s sentencing judge See Kee Onn stressed the need for a jail term to act as a deterrent.
AP
* Use IOL’s Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.