Singapore pastor charged with $38 million fraud to fund his wife's pop music career

The founder of one of the largest churches in Singapore has been charged over the misuse of church funds.

Pastor Kong Hee of the City Harvest Church allegedly siphoned off $18 million  from the church's account to finance his wife's pop music singing career.  Some of this money was allegedly used to pay for a $20,000 per month Hollywood mansion.  When questions were raised about the missing funds, another $20 million was reportedly siphoned off to cover up the initial fraud.

The City Harvest Church is a Christian evangelical church with approximately 33,000 members.  It has branches across Asia.

Church members are apparently supporting Kong on Twitter and Facebook, claiming that he is "a great pastor" and a "good man."

If found guilty of the charges, the pastor could face life imprisonment.

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D. Beeksma

One of the growing crowd of American "nones" herself, Deborah is a prolific writer who finds religion, spirituality and the impact of belief (and non-belief) on culture inspiring, fascinating and at times, disturbing. She hosts the God Discussion show and handles the site's technical work. Her education and background is in business, ecommerce and law.

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