Auditors had sought explanations about the cheque several times, a court was told on Thursday, and every time, the answer came back differently.

Opening its case against Ming Yi, 47, and Raymond Yeung Chi Hang, 34, an Australian citizen and Singapore permanent resident, yesterday, the prosecution said it would prove that the $50,000 was not a loan, as both men had insisted.

Instead, Deputy Public Prosecutor Jaswant Singh said, the money was an unauthorised payment by Ming Yi, taken from Ren Ci's coffers, for renovations to a Hong Kong flat belonging to Yeung's friend. To cover up this fraudulent use of funds, he said, instructions were given to Ren Ci staff to prepare a payment voucher that stated the money was a loan.

The monk, who founded Ren Ci and was its former chief executive officer, faces 10 charges, including forgery.

Four - two counts of giving false information to the Commissioner of Charities, and one each of falsifying accounts and criminal breach of trust - form the basis of the trial. The other six have been stood down for now.

Yeung is a co-defendant in two of the charges the prosecution is proceeding on.

In recounting the saga of the $50,000 yesterday, Mr Winston Ngan, an auditor who led a Ministry of Health review of the charity's finances in 2007, said he had been given varying explanations of where the money went.

He told the court that when first asked about it that December, Ming Yi had said it was a loan to Mandala, a shop dealing in Buddhist artefacts, to buy wood.

But Mr Ngan, a partner at auditing firm Ernst & Young, said when Yeung was asked about it, he said it was used to pay rental costs for the Mandala Buddhist Cultural Centre at the Fu Lu Shou Complex.

Read the full story in today's edition of The Straits Times.