Billionaire to plead guilty
Billionaire Ong Beng Seng, who is facing two charges in a case linked to former transport minister S Iswaran, will be pleading guilty on July 3.
The date was set after his pre-trial conference on June 10.
The 79-year-old was previously scheduled to plead guilty on April 2, but the case was adjourned after his lawyers asked for more time to obtain his medical reports.
The property tycoon was charged on Oct 4, 2024, with abetting a public servant in obtaining gifts and with abetting the obstruction of justice.
Under Section 165, it is an offence for a public servant to accept anything of value from any person with whom he is involved in an official capacity without payment or with inadequate payment.
According to court documents, the businessman had in December 2022 allegedly arranged for Iswaran to fly on Ong's private plane from Singapore to Doha. The flight was valued at US$7,700.
Ong is also said to have arranged a one-night stay at Four Seasons Hotel Doha, valued at US$4,737.63, and a business-class flight from Doha to Singapore, valued at US$5,700, for Iswaran.
Court documents showed it was allegedly Ong who alerted Iswaran that the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau had seized the flight manifest for the December 2022 trip. It prompted Iswaran to ask the tycoon to bill him for the flight to avoid investigations.
For this alleged offence, Ong was charged with the abetment of obstruction of justice.
The businessman is known as the man who brought Formula One (F1) to Singapore in 2008 – the first night race in the sport's history.
Iswaran was chairman of the F1 steering committee and the Government's chief negotiator with Singapore GP on business matters related to the race.
The two men had worked in the mid-2000s to convince then Formula One Group chief executive Bernie Ecclestone to make Singapore the venue for the sport's first night race.
On Oct 3, 2024, Iswaran was handed a 12-month jail term after he pleaded guilty to five charges, including obtaining valuable items as a public servant from Ong and David Lum Kok Seng, managing director of construction company Lum Chang Holdings.
Iswaran was placed on the Home Detention Scheme on Feb 7, 2025. — The Straits Times/ANN
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
43 minutes ago
- The Sun
Tougher Singapore crypto regulations kick in
SINGAPORE: Singapore ramped up crypto exchange regulations Monday in a bid to curb money laundering and boost market confidence after a series of high-profile scandals rattled the sector. The city-state's central bank last month said digital token service providers (DTSPs) that served only overseas clients must have a licence to continue operations past June 30 -- or close up shop. The Monetary Authority of Singapore in a subsequent statement added that it has 'set the bar high for licensing and will generally not issue a licence' for such operations. Singapore, a major Asian financial hub, has taken a hit to its reputation after several high-profile recent cases dented trust in the emerging crypto sector. These included the collapse of cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and Terraform Labs, which both filed for bankruptcy in 2022. 'The money laundering risks are higher in such business models and if their substantive regulated activity is outside of Singapore, the MAS is unable to effectively supervise such persons,' the central bank said, referring to firms serving solely foreign clients. Analysts welcomed the move to tighten controls on crypto exchanges. 'With the new DTSP regime, MAS is reinforcing that financial integrity is a red line,' Chengyi Ong, head of Asia Pacific policy at crypto data group Chainalysis, told AFP. 'The goal is to insulate Singapore from the reputational risk that a crypto business based in Singapore, operating without sufficient oversight, is knowingly or unknowingly involved in illicit activity.' Law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher said in a comment on its website that the move will 'allow Singapore to be fully compliant' with the requirements of the Financial Action Task Force, the France-based global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog. Three Arrows Capital filed for bankruptcy in 2022 when its fortunes suffered a sharp decline after a massive sell-off of assets it had bet on as prices nosedived in crypto markets. Its Singaporean co-founder Su Zhu was arrested at Changi Airport while trying to leave the country and jailed for four months. A court in the British Virgin Islands later ordered a US$1.14 billion worldwide asset freeze on the company's founders. Singapore-based Terraform Labs also saw its cryptocurrencies crash dramatically in 2022, forcing it to file for bankruptcy protection in the United States. The collapse of the firm's TerraUSD and Luna wiped out around US$40 billion in investments and caused wider losses in the global crypto market estimated at more than US$400 billion. South Korean Do Kwon, who co-founded Terraform in 2018, was arrested in 2023 in Montenegro and later extradited to the United States on fraud charges related to the crash. He had been on the run after fleeing Singapore and South Korea.
The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Drugs worth 700mil pesos seized in Philippines; cops probing link to ‘floating' shabu
FILE PHOTO: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos (C, in white shirt) and Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos (2nd R) inspect seized methamphetamine drugs in Alitatag town in Batangas province on April 16, 2024. - AFP MANILA: Suspected shabu (crystal meth) with a street value of P700.4 million (US$12.4 million) was confiscated in Bulacan, Central Luzon, prompting authorities to investigate potential links to the illegal drugs recently recovered in waters off coastal provinces. Philippine National Police Drug Enforcement Group (PNP DEG) Director Brig. Gen. Edwin Quilates announced this in a press conference at Camp Crame on Monday (June 30). According to the PNP DEG, 103 kilograms of shabu were seized in an operation on Saturday night along Bantique Street in Barangay Bulihan, Plaridel. 'When we opened the package, our investigators who were conducting the inventory said it was still wet. The bag was also wet. Then the packaging was wet. The tea bags had four layers of covering,' Quilates said. When asked if the shabu was linked to drugs recently recovered in the waters off Luzon, Quilates answered, 'We will look into that. We will connect it to the recoveries there in Subic recently. That's the disposition of our operatives and investigators.' According to the PNP DEG, a Chinese individual and a Filipino were arrested during the operation last Saturday. Police identified them as 'Lian,' 55, and 'Ry,' 40, respectively. 'He has a seafood store and a small restaurant. He has a common-law wife. They've been living [there] for more than ten years. He's been here a while,' Quilates said. 'We will check on his documents as to how he got here and his status of residency here in our country,' he added. Quilates said the Filipino suspect was merely the Chinese national's helper. The suspects were brought to the PNP DEG for documentation, while the seized drugs were turned over to the Forensic Group for laboratory examination. Quilates noted that the suspects will face charges for alleged violations of Republic Act 9165, or the Dangerous Drugs Act. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
New Straits Times
an hour ago
- New Straits Times
Tougher Singapore crypto regulations kick in
SINGAPORE: Singapore ramped up crypto exchange regulations Monday in a bid to curb money laundering and boost market confidence after a series of high-profile scandals rattled the sector. The city-state's central bank last month said digital token service providers (DTSPs) that served only overseas clients must have a licence to continue operations past June 30 -- or close up shop. The Monetary Authority of Singapore in a subsequent statement added that it has "set the bar high for licensing and will generally not issue a licence" for such operations. Singapore, a major Asian financial hub, has taken a hit to its reputation after several high-profile recent cases dented trust in the emerging crypto sector. These included the collapse of cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and Terraform Labs, which both filed for bankruptcy in 2022. "The money laundering risks are higher in such business models and if their substantive regulated activity is outside of Singapore, the MAS is unable to effectively supervise such persons," the central bank said, referring to firms serving solely foreign clients. Analysts welcomed the move to tighten controls on crypto exchanges. "With the new DTSP regime, MAS is reinforcing that financial integrity is a red line," Chengyi Ong, head of Asia Pacific policy at crypto data group Chainalysis, told AFP. "The goal is to insulate Singapore from the reputational risk that a crypto business based in Singapore, operating without sufficient oversight, is knowingly or unknowingly involved in illicit activity." Law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher said in a comment on its website that the move will "allow Singapore to be fully compliant" with the requirements of the Financial Action Task Force, the France-based global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog. Three Arrows Capital filed for bankruptcy in 2022 when its fortunes suffered a sharp decline after a massive sell-off of assets it had bet on as prices nosedived in crypto markets. Its Singaporean co-founder Su Zhu was arrested at Changi Airport while trying to leave the country and jailed for four months. A court in the British Virgin Islands later ordered a US$1.14 billion worldwide asset freeze on the company's founders. Singapore-based Terraform Labs also saw its cryptocurrencies crash dramatically in 2022, forcing it to file for bankruptcy protection in the United States. The collapse of the firm's TerraUSD and Luna wiped out around US$40 billion in investments and caused wider losses in the global crypto market estimated at more than US$400 billion. South Korean Do Kwon, who co-founded Terraform in 2018, was arrested in 2023 in Montenegro and later extradited to the United States on fraud charges related to the crash. He had been on the run after fleeing Singapore and South Korea. mba/jhe/dan
