Eight more members of Singapore's City Harvest Church (CHC) are facing a new lawsuit after the former fund manager accused them of "fraudulent misrepresentation" of facts about the church.
Chew Eng Han is facing a jail sentence of six years after being convicted of fraud for misusing church finances. The subjects of his allegations include CHC's founder and pastor, Kong Hee, his wife Ho Yeow Sun, former CHC executive pastor Derek Dunn and executive pastor Aries Zulkarnain.
Chew's accusations have been refuted by CHC's lawyers.
"These allegations are misconceived and/or erroneous as a matter of law," they said in a letter to Chew, according to Today.
Police confirmed to the news site that a report had been filed, but declined to comment further, in part because Chew is currently appealing against his own conviction and sentence.
He was sentenced to jail for fraud along with five other members of CHC church – including Kong Hee – last November.
The $35 million fraud was "the largest amount of charity funds ever misappropriated in Singapore's legal history," state prosecutors said at the time. The money had been used to fund the music career of Ho Yeow Sun.
CHC, which has about 17,500 members in Singapore and worldwide, launched the Crossover Project in 2002 – an evangelisation project built on Ho's music. Songs released included China Wine, in which rap artist Wyclef Jean portrayed Ho as an exotic dancer in Jamaica.
An attempt to break into the US market ended in failure and huge losses.
The convictions were for misappropriating church funds for the music project then taking more to cover tracks of the non-musical variety. Ho, who became leader of the church, was not prosecuted.
