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SINGAPORE: Former head of Ren Ci Hospital, Venerable Shi Ming Yi, has been charged with forgery, conspiracy and misuse of funds.
46-year-old Venerable Ming Yi, who was also the former Ren Ci chairman, was slapped with 10 charges on Tuesday morning.
The monk faces four charges under the Penal Code involving two counts of alleged criminal breach of trust. He also faces one count of forgery for the purpose of cheating, and one count of abetment for allegedly falsifying accounts.
He also faces six charges under the Charities Act for allegedly providing false information over a decade.
Two of his associates, Raymond Yeung and Phua Seow Hua, were also alleged to have gone into conspiracy with the venerable and were also charged in court on Tuesday.
This is the second case in Singapore where a large charity and its leaders have been charged with mismanaging funds. The first was the National Kidney Foundation and its ex-CEO, TT Durai.
Separately, a volunteer from Ren Ci was charged with possessing some 70 copies of obscene film.
Venerable Ming Yi, also known as Goh Kah Heng, is out on a S$200,000 bail. His case will be heard in court on August 4.
The monk has been on leave for five months before his arrest on Monday night. He had been under probe by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD).
The CAD was called in after auditors engaged by the Ministry of Health (MOH) highlighted possible irregularities in some of the charity's financial transactions.
The MOH had said that several transactions, which involved several million dollars, could not be satisfactorily explained.
The venerable is said to have given false information to the Commissioner of Charities between 1998 and 2008. These included two instances when he allegedly approved million-dollar investments for the charity, but the funds included loans for himself.
The monk is also accused of using S$300,000 to offset an outstanding loan by Mandala Buddhist Cultural Centre, of which he is a partner, and another S$50,000 was allegedly lent to Yeung and a helper at the monasteries.
He was also alleged to have forged minutes of a meeting by asking a staff to write that it was Mandala, and not himself, that owed Ren Ci over S$600,000.
The venerable's lawyer, Andre Yap, said: "Our position would be that everything that was done was for a legitimate cause. It is not a case where a person has basically taken the money and used it to buy a house or buy shares for himself...
"It's a question of corporate governance; it's a question of how you treat certain things in the accounts and what should be done.
"Some of the charges relate to matters which the previous board of Ren Ci had discussed at board meetings and had even sanctioned. So we don't believe that there's a criminal element to many of these charges."
Ren Ci and 11 other large Institutions of a Public Character were subject to the Health Ministry's general review in July 2006.
The organisation is believed to be the third largest health charity in Singapore after the National Kidney Foundation and the SingHealth Endowment Fund.
The Commissioner of Charities has suspended Venerable Ming Yi from his office as Chief Executive Officer of Ren Ci Hospital & Medicare Centre with immediate effect.
He will also be suspended from his executive positions in five other charities: Foo Hai Ch'an Monastery, Foo Hai Ch'an Buddhist Cultural and Welfare Association, Singapore Buddhist Free Clinic, The Singapore Regional Centre of the World Fellowship of Buddhists, and the Katho Temple.
However, he remains the religious leader of the Foo Hai Ch'an Monastery in Geylang East.
Despite the monk's departure, Ren Ci's current services and day-to-day operations have been unaffected by the incident.
Member of Parliament, Dr Ong Seh Hong, has taken over as CEO, while Mr Chua Thian Poh was appointed chairman of Ren Ci in September 2007. Both men did not respond to Channel NewsAsia's queries on the case.
The Health Ministry said the new chairman has added new members to Ren Ci's board and has put in "a number of improvements in accordance with the recommendations made by the auditor", and he will "further strengthen the board in the wake of these findings".
One devotee at the Foo Hai Ch'an Monastery said he hopes the case will lay everything out in the open.
Benny Woo, a businessman, said: "It's a sad case, but I still feel that he probably has his reasons (for doing what he did). Personally, it does not discourage or demoralise my faith. As a CEO and as a person-in-charge, he has to face up to it and be liable, even though he may not be directly involved."
The high-profile monk is also abbot to several temples in Hong Kong and Malaysia.
- CNA/yb/so
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