Lawyers told us we were negligent: Kong Hee

[SINGAPORE] "Shaken to the core" was how the founder of the City Harvest Church felt when he was told by lawyers in early June 2010 that he and his five deputies had been negligent and "had done wrong" in managing the church's finances.

Recounting yesterday that he had met up with the other accused and two lawyers a day after he recorded his first statement to the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD), Kong Hee, 49, said he had always consulted the lawyers and auditors on the church's plans, be it bond investments or the financing of his singer-wife Sun Ho's debut English album in the United States.

Taking the stand for the fourth day, he said: "I was shocked because I thought that all this while, we had relied on professionals to advise us; now one of the key professionals was saying we had done wrong."