himself from the staff payroll and he now serves the church as an honorary founder/senior pastor. Later, in an investigation leading to trial and conviction, it was revealed that Kong had set up a private fund and diverted over $3 million of tithes and pledges to a 'multi purpose account'. Givers to the account were told this was for the funding of a 'Crossover project'. Since 1996, CHC’s mandate was to build a “church without walls” – a church that actively engages the local community. Out of this vision, CHC started many initiatives such as a community arm known as City Harvest Community Services Association (CHCSA) in 1997 and the Crossover Project in 2002. CHCSA is currently involved in elderly services, direct social services, patient care services, as well as youth and community projects. In December 2004, CHC was involved in the humanitarian relief work of the Indian Ocean tsunami. The church has since sent aid and disaster relief workers to the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Controversies Criminal Breach of Trust Since the beginning of the 21st century, one of the biggest corruption case on the island revolved around City Harvest Church and founders Kong Hee involving a total of S$50 million of funds mis-use. Six persons from the senior leadership, including its church founder Kong Hee, were convicted of the misuse of millions of dollars of the church's money. The court found that the church's senior leadership had channelled $24 million from CHC's Building Fund into sham bonds in music production company Xtron and glass-maker Firna. The purpose of the restricted Building Fund was specifically for building or investment. They used the money to fund the singing career of Kong's wife Ho Yeow Sun, as part of the Crossover Project, a church mission which they said was to evangelise through Ms Ho's music. Expenses revealed by court records included a house in Hollywood that cost $28,000 a month in rent; a whole entourage of staff; a $1.9 million paycheck to rapper Wyclef Jean to produce the "China Wine" video; as well as another $500,000 to sweep up her albums when they tanked. The six appealed the verdict, and on 7 April 2017, the Court of Appeal reduced their sentences by approximately half, based on its finding that “the appellants should only have been convicted of the offence of criminal breach of trust simpliciter under section 406 of the Penal Code”.