Former head of Ren Ci Hospital, Ven Shi Ming Yi, charged in court

"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...

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."


It is the duty of all Singaporeans to condemn attacks made on local charities and voluntary welfare organizations.

If you take a country like Singapore, based on social cohesion, and you look at the charities and voluntary welfare organizations that help maintain it, then conceptually, their probity is important. It means you can be sure that the money that is donated to charities goes to the people who they are supposed to help.

In order to have that – not just as a slogan but in reality – you need honest charities and voluntary welfare organizations that really help their targets and in fact, anyone who needs help. People must have confidence that charities and voluntary welfare organizations are honest and uncorrupt.

In order to make sure that people's confidence in charities and voluntary welfare organizations is not affected, you have to be very, very strict with anyone who attacks charities and voluntary welfare organizations in scurrilous ways or calls into question their honesty.

We are confident that the recent criminal charges pressed against the heads of the two biggest charitable organisations in Singapore have nothing to do with structurally inadequate governance in charities. It was just human error.

It is an honest mistake. Let’s move on.


If he is convicted, does he get stripped of his "Venerable" title?