SINGAPORE : City Harvest Church may have run afoul of the law over possible financial irregularities.

Officers from the Commercial Affairs Department arrived at the offices of City Harvest Church on Monday morning to question individuals connected with the case.

It is believed that 12 people linked to the church were questioned in connection with the case, including Kong Hee, the founding member of the church and its pastor.

Investigators also confiscated financial records and accounts from the church’s premises.

City Harvest is one of the largest churches in Singapore, with a congregation of over 30,000 who regularly pack its venues at Jurong West and the Singapore Expo during serm**.

The church’s reach online is even greater — through live webcasts, podcasts and its own broadcast channel. Much of it is driven by its charismatic founder, Pastor Kong.

The pastor keeps a Facebook page that has over 30,000 fans, and has his own YouTube channel. He lives in the US with his son and wife, Sun Ho, a successful pop singer.

This is not the first time City Harvest Church has made headlines. It was just in March that eyebrows were raised over the church’s S$310 million stake in Suntec City Convention Centre, and the Commissioner of Charities was called in to investigate.

In a statement to MediaCorp, the charities watchdog stressed that this round of investigati** is not related to the earlier Suntec case.

It added that the case involved more than just City Harvest — it included companies and individuals connected either directly or indirectly with the church. That is why, it said, the police have to be involved.

Depending on the findings, the charity’s trustee may be suspended.

The statement continued: "While there was a governance review conducted on City Harvest Church in 2007, the objective and the scope are different from that of an inquiry.

"The governance review essentially looks at the organisation’s corporate governance with the objective of assessing and helping the charities to improve the way they are run.

"The inquiry on the other hand is a formal investigation into allegati** and complaints received to ascertain that there is no mismanagement or misconduct in the administration of a charity."

When asked to comment, the National Council of Churches of Singapore, of which City Harvest is a member, said it was too premature to do so at this point.

On the City Harvest’s website, a notice to members by Executive Pastor Reverend Derek Dunn stated that the church was "cooperating fully" with investigati**, and that services and operati** would continue as usual.

MediaCorp understands the church has engaged Christina Ng from law firm Rajah and Tann to represent it.

— CNA/al