Category Archives: Corporate Governance

City Harvest Case part 6: The Smog of the Crossover Financing

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The revelations about the large sums of money (tens of millions of dollars) used liberally to finance Sun Ho’s failed attempt to breakthrough on the U.S. music scene and about her carefree, luxury lifestyle, have shocked many City Harvest Church members, the christians community at large and even the wider public. Reading through online forums, it is clear that many people felt that the amounts spent were extravagant and questioned what this “U.S. pop star adventure” had really got to do with the Christian evangelisation project it proclaimed to be. Continue reading →

City Harvest Case part 5: CHC’s Crossover or Sun Ho’s Crossover

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As explained in my previous post “City Harvest Case Part 4 – Can You Rationalize a Crime to be a Benefit to Society?“, the CHC investigations and trial have turned the spotlights on  a number of very questionable decisions and practices made by the CHC Leadership in relation to the Crossover project. Continue reading →

City Harvest Case part 4: Can you Rationalize a Crime to be Beneficial to Society?

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Every week Pastor Kong Hee and Pastor Tan Ye Peng both preach eloquently about good ethical principles solidly grounded in the Bible. Through many sermons, they have warned repeatedly the faithful crowd convincingly about the deadly power of sin and how easy it is to be tempted and fall on the wrong side. How could the same men of God, as the COC Report and the prosecution claim, be doing the contrary of what they preach? Continue reading →

City Harvest Case part 3 – The Opportunity Makes the Thief

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Social scientists, psychologists and criminologists generally agree that human behavior is the product of a complex interaction among a wide range of factors. Some of those factors are personal to the individual and others are related to the environment in which the individual evolves. The Fraud Triangle Risk Assessment model that I have been using for this analysis of the CHC case categorize these factors into 3 groups: Pressure, Opportunity and Rationalization.  Continue reading →

City Harvest Case part 1: Following God or Mammon?

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The start of the City Harvest Church (CHC in short) trial on the 15th of May after 2 years of investigations which saw the church senior pastor and founder, Kong Hee and 5 other leaders of the church being prosecuted for allegedly misusing church’s funds, has brought back under the spotlight the issue of the sensitive relationship between Religion and Money. Continue reading →

Food for thoughts.. “As Long as the tide is up, You can swim naked!”

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A lot of people and organizations think they are taking risks and managing them effectively because ‘on the surface’ (revenues, short-term profits) everything appears to look good!. Unfortunately, it is only during a crisis that they will find out too late that they are ‘naked’.

Are CEOs Over-paid? Big Carrots, Blind Spots and Very Small Sticks!

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The row over executive compensation has been reignited by the recent awarding of about £8 to 9m bonus to Bob Diamond, CEO of Barclays. Bob’s feisty defense of his bonus has further exasperated the many people who think that bankers are over-paid when we consider their ‘real’ performance. Continue reading →