SINGAPORE ? A high-living Buddhist monk who ran one of Singapore's most well-known charities was Saturday jailed for 10 months for fraud, court officials said.

Shi Ming Yi, 47, was handed the sentence after being convicted last month of conspiring with his personal aide, Raymong Yeung, 34, to cheat the Ren Ci charity out of 50,000 Singapore dollars ($36,000).

Yeung was sentenced to nine months for the crime.

Shi was the founder of Ren Ci ? a charity that provides subsidized medical care to elderly patients ? and had lived the high life, owning several luxury cars and properties in Singapore and Australia, before being caught.

He had also owned a horse in Australia.

In 2004, Shi, who was Ren Ci's chief executive at the time, made the unauthorized loan of $50,000 from the charity's coffers to Yeung, who used the money to pay for a friend's home renovation in Hong Kong.

The pair said the money was loaned to a shop affiliated with the charity, but external auditors found this to be untrue.

Singapore is a predominantly Buddhist country, with 42.5 percent of the population over 15 subscribing to the religion.