IP addresses are NOT logged in this forum so there's no point asking. Please note that this forum is full of homophobes, racists, lunatics, schizophrenics & absolute nut jobs with a smattering of geniuses, Chinese chauvinists, Moderate Muslims and last but not least a couple of "know-it-alls" constantly sprouting their dubious wisdom. If you believe that content generated by unsavory characters might cause you offense PLEASE LEAVE NOW! Sammyboy Admin and Staff are not responsible for your hurt feelings should you choose to read any of the content here. The OTHER forum is HERE so please stop asking.
Chief nun and mainland Chinese monk arrested amid claims of marriage scam and embezzlement in Hong Kong monastery probe
Head nun among four arrested from a Buddhist monastery in Tai Po by immigration authorities after monastery director accused Chi Ding of finance mismanagement and bogus marriages
The chief nun Sik Chi Ding (left) was arrested by Hong Kong immigration authorities along with three others this afternoon. Photo: Sam Tsang
Immigration authorities arrested the chief nun of a Buddhist monastery in Tai Po yesterday amid allegations that she married two mainland Chinese monks in a residency scam and pocketed donations.
Four people were arrested at Ting Wai Monastery at 2pm, including a man and a woman detained on suspicion of making false representations in statutory declarations and making false statements to immigration officers, the department said.
Sources close to the case named the four as chief nun Sik Chi Ding, 47; monk Ru Zhi, 40; a female Indonesian domestic helper, 30; and the helper's employer, also a nun, aged 40.
The helper and her employer were arrested on suspicion of breaching conditions of stay and aiding and abetting a person in breaching conditions of stay.
The two nuns and the monk were released on bail last night, while the helper was released on bail this morning. Chi Ding and the monk have to report to the investigation bureau on Tuesday.
Immigration officers arrested four people at Ting Wai Monastery in Tai Po.
Sources close to the investigation said the monk's name was found on a marriage certificate seized yesterday, and investigators were looking for people related to the case.
"Our investigation is not over yet. We will see if there are other offences, including sham marriages. We won't rule out making more arrests," senior immigration officer Karmen Tam Kok-shan said.
About 10 immigration officers descended on the monastery yesterday and spent about four hours taking photographs and questioning people inside. They took away marriage and divorce certificates issued on the mainland, identification documents, a Buddhist academy graduation certificate, a laptop and a safe.
The authorities acted after monastery director Mary Jean Reimer, a lawyer and former actress, accused Chi Ding publicly on Tuesday of mismanagement and bogus marriages.
Immigration officers took away marriage certificates issued in mainland China, identification documents, a Buddhist academy graduation certificate, a laptop and a safe from the monastery premises.
Reimer claimed the nun had transferred some of the more than HK$5 million in donations to a bank account she controlled and had admitted twice marrying mainland monks to help them secure permanent Hong Kong residency.
Chi Ding responded on the same day by issuing a statement saying she had reported the matter to police.
"I will not speculate on the motives behind Ms Reimer's recent acts," she wrote. "The matter has been passed to my lawyer and I will not comment further."
On hearing of Chi Ding's arrest, Reimer said: "I hope she will feel remorse now. We don't feel happy hearing about her arrest but we hope to revive donors' confidence in the monastery."
Lawyer and monastery director Mary Jean Reimer speaks to journalists about donation issues related to Ting Wing at the Admiralty Centre on Tuesday. Photo: Sam Tsang
Ting Wai Monastery, built in the 1920s, is one of the earliest Buddhist temples in Tai Po. It raised more than HK$1.3 million on FringeBacker, a global crowdfunding platform, for renovation work this year, according to the monastery's Facebook page.
In a statement on its website, FringeBacker confirmed it still held all the money it had received from 737 backers for the monastery campaign and would keep them updated.
The legendary actress-turned-lawyer says she has entered the spotlight again simply so she can sleep easy at night. In doing so she has put herself in the eye of another media storm.
"I'm a retired person, a housewife. I'm not fighting for anything. I'm not running for Legco or becoming a politician," says Reimer. "But can I walk away from this fraud? I can't do that."
Reimer is referring to the recent controversial case of Sik Chi Ding, the abbess of Ting Wai Monastery in Tai Po, who allegedly pocketed millions in donations and is accused of two sham marriages with mainland monks.
Reimer speaks out at a press conference on the monastery affair
Reimer feels responsible for what happened and has played a modern day Sherlock Holmes in the latest episode of her colourful life, seeking to expose dirt swept under Buddhist robes and expose a woman she had initially tried to help.
"I believe that it's a blessing to become a holy person, and one should cherish that," says the 51-year-old. "It's the worst nightmare. I don't feel angry. I'm feeling very sad instead. It's a sad situation. I feel sorry for her."
Abbess Sik Chi Ding, the woman at the centre of the scandal
It all began out of Reimer's good heart.
Having learned in February about the adverse conditions and financial difficulties facing the 90-year-old monastery, she decided to rally support from Buddhists and the public and waged a fundraising campaign to save it from falling apart.
Reimer recalls the sight of the monastery when she visited. "It was in a very bad state. The ceilings were collapsing. The altar where ceremonies were supposed to be conducted had a big hole in it," she says. "I had never heard of any religious establishment being so run down as this."
Worse still, the monastery could not raise funds through hosting ceremonies for the masses because of noise complaints from neighbours, Reimer says. "I'm just a simple person giving my good heart."
Reimer subsequently waged a fundraising campaign and her fame convinced many to support the cause - she is no ordinary housewife, as she claims to be.
She might have declined to answer questions concerning her personal history but her exploits have made her an urban legend in Chinese communities around the world.
Mary Jean Reimer with her husband, Lau Kar-leung, at the 2010 Hong Kong film awards
Born in 1964, Reimer is better known as Yung Ching-ching - as she was called aged 16 when she shot to fame as the new Shaw Brothers screen goddess, starring opposite Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing and Danny Chan Pak-keung in the 1980 film Encore. She went on to star in martial arts fantasies including Little Dragon Maiden, also opposite Cheung, and Holy Flame of the Martial World (1983).
She shocked fans when she abruptly quit showbiz in 1984 to marry kung fu legend and film director Lau Kar-leung, who was 30 years her senior.
The couple had two daughters but Reimer did not settle for the role of a Stepford Wife. She reinvented herself as a multitalented modern day career woman with a profile that was the envy of many: a television and radio show host, a top insurance consultant, a best-selling author and a lawyer running her own legal firm. Recently it was reported that she has been dating Sean Hotung, son of billionaire philanthropist Eric Hotung.
While focusing on developing her career in law, the mysterious death of lawyer Ken Lim Keng-yip brought her back into the limelight in 2001.
Lim, a litigation partner and solicitor at Johnson Stokes & Master, accidentally fell from the seventh-floor flat of Reimer, who was a trainee at the firm at the time. It was reported that Lau had rung the doorbell and Lim climbed out a window, stood on a ledge but lost his balance and fell on to a podium.
The shocking case, however, did not prove to be an obstacle to Reimer's determination in the legal field.
Reimer leads tributes at her husband's funeral in 2013
She became a solicitor who dared to speak out. Shortly after Lau died in 2013, Reimer set up a charity in Lau's name to help struggling martial artists and actors. She appealed to Shaw Brothers Studio's Mona Fong, wife of studio founder Run Run Shaw for between HK$5 million and HK$10 million in bonuses from overseas box office takings stretching back more than three decades that she claimed was owed her late husband.
"Master Lau was a leader in a number of strikes, causing the Shaw Brothers Studio - which was focusing on martial arts films at the time - to suspend production [...] This story teaches us that there's a price for social justice, but it is worth it for a greater cause," she wrote in one social media post at the time.
So it was hardly a surprise to see Reimer throwing herself into a campaign to revive the rundown monastery. She proposed turning it into a meditation centre that would allow to monastery to function while avoiding noise complaints.
She and other volunteers organised a fundraising campaign, including a crowd-funding project on website FringeBacker at the end of June to raise funds to restore the monastery's run-down structure. She also serves on the board of directors of the monastery.
By the end of September, it had raised more than HK$1.3 million from 737 donors. It was the second largest online crowd-funded campaign in Hong Kong, according to the website. Within six months, some HK$5 million had been raised.
Just when there appeared to be light at the end of the tunnel, Reimer discovered something had gone very wrong.
"[Sik Chi Ding] doesn't pray. She doesn't turn the lights on for the Buddha, claiming to save electricity bills. But she turns air-conditioning on for herself," says Reimer.
Reimer and other volunteers offered help, hoping to persuade her to change and practise Buddhism in a proper way. They even signed up Chi Ding for six months' training with a Buddhist institute in Taiwan so she could learn everything all over again.
But Reimer says she discovered that the nun had transferred the donations from an account designated for maintenance funds to another account under her control. "I was very upset. That was no difference from stealing money."
Reimer and other volunteers confronted the nun in July. She paid back HK$400,000, cancelled the Taiwan trip - and tried to remove Reimer from the board.
Reimer also alleged that the abbess had admitted that she had married twice in order to help two mainland monks secure permanent Hong Kong residency. Both monks were affiliated with Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island.
She confronted Po Lin Monastery's abbot, Sik Chi Wai, president of the Hong Kong Buddhist Association. "The answer I got was: 'if you are a Buddhist, stay out of it.' I could never imagine this," she says.
But Reimer will not stay out of it. She says she has received donations from many, including tiny sums from old people who have few savings. She even received a donation of HK$80,000 from someone shortly before she died.
"It was her life savings. She made the donation from her deathbed before she died."
Although Chi Ding and a monk, Ru Zhi, were arrested by the Immigration Department amid allegations they were involved in a bogus marriage last week, the curious case of Ting Wai Monastery has exposed the lack of an effective monitoring system for the management of Chinese temples.
On the day Chi Ding was arrested, she issued a statement saying she had reported the matter to police.
"I will not speculate on the motives behind Ms Reimer's recent acts," she wrote.
"The matter has been passed to my lawyer and I will not comment further."
Reimer, on the other hand, is preparing for a court case.
"I have to clear my conscience," she says. "I know what I'm going to face. I have responsibility for the donations, a duty to these people."
MARY JEAN REIMER
Name: Mary Jean Reimer
Age: 51
Past jobs: Film and TV actress, best known for roles opposite Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing, including youth drama Encore (1980) and martial arts fantasy Little Dragon Maiden (1983); radio show host, columnist and author of the Dangerous Persons series
Present role: solicitor, mother of two daughters with late film director Lau Kar-leung
