Under-fire Singaporean pop singer Sun Ho, 40, has made the headlines again — this time in her adopted hometown of Los Angeles.
The wife of City Harvest Church founder and Reverend Kong Hee,– who are both helping police in a major investigation into the alleged misuse of church funds — is the subject of a blog post entitled “Singapore’s City Harvest Church Controversy Comes to the Hollywood Hills” on the LAWeekly Blogs website.
The short, 250-word post dated 22nd June is filed under the “Crime” category and comes with an old dated photo of Sun Ho.
Written by Patrick Range McDonald, the post starts off with, “Unbeknown to many Hollywood Hills residents, a major, developing controversy involving a wealthy Singapore minister and his widely influential mega-church has come to their posh neighborhood.”
It further goes on to call the investigation a “huge public relations gaffe for the embattled Hee and City Harvest Church”.
On its website, LAWeekly Blogs calls itself the “definitive source of daily information for news, music, movies, restaurants, and the arts in Los Angeles.” It’s unclear what is the website’s total readership.
Sun Ho is the subject of a blog post on the LAWeekly Blogs website.
Hollywood Hills is the private, exclusive estate in Los Angeles where Ho is currently based.
An earlier The New Paper report said that the mansion Ho has been staying at for the past year costs S$28,000-a-month to rent. Neighbours include famous Hollywood celebrities such as Paris Hilton’s sister Nicky, “Ugly Betty” star America Ferrera and British singer Leona Lewis. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are also said to own a property in the vicinity.
According to the same paper, the mansion is listed for sale at S$7.7 million. It’s reported that Ho lives there with her 5-year-old son, Dayan, an assistant, a nanny and her relatives.
Ho’s estate stands on 29,000 sq ft of land or about a third of a football field. It’s made up of a main house, three self-contained structures, with quarters for a butler, nanny and maid. Not only does it boast a swimming pool, a sundeck and a two-car garage, its driveway still has space for another 9 cars.
The total built-up area of the estate is 6,766 sq ft or about the size of 5 five-room HDB flats, while the 4,135 sq ft main house has four bedrooms.
The paper also said the housing agent in charge of the property described Kong Hee’s wife as “Singapore’s top singer and entertainer” while a neighbour said she was very “sophisticated and seems traditional” as she often hosts gatherings during special occasions like Chinese New Year.
Back in Singapore, the couple also made some big property moves through the years.
They started off in a five-room HDB flat in Tampines which was purchased at S$127,000 before selling it for S$420,000. They then moved to a unit at Horizon Towers costing S$1 million in River Valley before selling it off to buy a new apartment at The Suites at Central on Devonshire Road, said to be worth about S$2.6 million.
Ho returned to Singapore last Monday to assist the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) in an investigation into alleged misuse of church funds. She was said to have been grilled by police for more than eight hours.
A majority of Yahoo! Singapore users have since questioned if the plush lifestyle enjoyed by the couple could be in part funded by the donations from City Harvest Church members and indeed, if such a lifestyle by the church co-founders should even be condoned.
Yahoo! Fit-to-Post user Tony commented, “If the lifestyle she is living in now is as a result of her fame and success from her recordings, then it is her own biz (sic) on how she spends it. But if it is out of the givings of the church in some form or other, then it is totally unacceptable. Also if she is the pastor’s wife, she should be fully aware of the implications of her behaviour, dressing and lifestyles. If you really believe in the Lord, then you above all (being a pastor and a pastor’s wife) should know that this is not what as Christians we strive for in this earthly world as this is temporary.”
Another user OMG said, “The pastor and his wife ought to step down from CHC….Just imagine, they ask their followers to downgrade from 5-room flat to 3-room flat while they themselves upgrade from flat to luxury apartment. This is double standards.”
Yet others have defended Sun Ho saying that as a singer who’s had a string of No. 1 dance hits in the US, she should be entitled to her rewards.
FTP user Jackson said, “Stop all nonsense! Sun Ho is a singer and most singers earn big bucks…why can’t she live a lavish lifestyle?”
Another user Doe agreed, saying “So she is a celebrity in the USA, it’s normal. What do you expect? Tell me one high-profile celebrity in the US that earns peanuts.”
