Shi Ming Yi, 47, and his former personal assistant Raymond Yeung, 34, were convicted in October of conspiring to take an unauthorised loan of 50,000 Singapore dollars (36,000 US dollars) from the Ren Ci charity in May 2004.

Yeung was sentenced to 9 months in jail, the online edition of Straits Times newspaper reported Saturday.

He used the money to pay for renovations at a friend's home in Hong Kong.

Both Ming Yi and Yeung had testified that the money was loaned to a Buddhist shop selling religious artefacts which was affiliated with the charity, the report said.

However, external auditors found that to be untrue, as the loan was not mentioned in the shop's accounts.

"Buddhist monks, we are no longer living in the mountains, we are not living in the forest. We are in the city now," the Straits Times newspaper quoted Ming Yi as saying.

The scandal, which came to light in 2007, was a blow to Singapore's charity sector and dismayed thousands of donors as the city-state's society is predominantly Buddhist.