Ren Ci saga comes to a close?

Ren Ci is a leading Singapore charity involved in providing free medical services. Its founder-chief and monk Shi Ming-Yi and his aide, Raymond Yeung, were charged in court with various offences relating to a $50,000 loan to the aide. Shi was charged with criminal breach of trust in relation to the $50,000 as loans to Yeung were not covered by the charity's staff loan scheme as the latter was a Hongkonger who had not received permission to work in Singapore. Further, the charity's staff loan scheme had strict limits based on the employee's salary.

In an attempt to cover up the loan, the abbot and his aide recorded the $50,000 as a loan to the Mandala Buddhist Cultural Centre, a business entity owned by the charity. However, the Centre's books had no record of this. Later, false statements were made to the Commissioner of Charities when the loan was probed. This is another example where the cover-up offences turn a single act of dishonesty into a whole chain of offences.

Both have just been found guilty after a 21-day trial. Because this was not an isolated act of dishonesty and the fact that public monies in the form of charitable donations were misused, it is possible that a stiff sentence would be meted out. Sentencing will be on 11 November 2009.

[legal note - criminal breach of trust occurs when money entrusted with a person is used for unauthorised purposes. Even using such money for less than a day would amount to an offence under the Penal Code, and this is so even if the money is replaced]

Law - fraud and the Penal Code

As mentioned previously, the Penal Code is the main criminal statute in Singapore.

Most of the common offences relating to fraud are found in Chapter 17 of the Code which deals with property offences. These offences are -

a) cheating (section 415) - this applies when a person is deceived or tricked either

• into delivering assets or
  

• allowing assets to be kept, or

• doing something or not doing something which in both cases is likely to lead to harm
  

b) criminal breach of trust (section 405) - this applies when a person who is either entrusted with assets or manages assets, uses these assets for purposes not covered by the entrustment.

c) forgery (section 463) - this applies to anyone making a false document or electronic record for a whole host of reasons. Perhaps if you make a fake document solely as a practical joke, this would be one of the few instances where no offence would be committed.

These offences may sometimes overlap - for example, if a fake share certificate is used to deceive someone, the offences of cheating and of forgery may both be committed. However, the usual rule is that a person cannot be punished twice for one criminal act.