Singapore’s Iswaran gifts scandal: Ong Beng Seng avoids jail, fined US$23,400

Ong Beng Seng, a Singapore-based billionaire hotelier and architect of the city state’s Formula One Grand Prix, was fined S$30,000 (US$23,400) on Friday over a charge of abetting former transport minister S. Iswaran in a gifts scandal.

Ong, a 79-year-old Malaysian national, earlier this month pleaded guilty to the charge of abetting Iswaran in obstructing justice, admitting to relaying sensitive information about an ongoing anti-corruption investigation to the then minister.

The case has riveted Singapore, a nation that consistently tops global anti-corruption rankings and prides itself on the probity of its public officials, who are among the world’s best paid.

On Friday, Principal District Judge Lee Lit Cheng found that judicial mercy applied in this case and sentenced Ong to the maximum fine for the offence.

Iswaran was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment by a High Court judge last October after being convicted on four counts of accepting gifts from individuals with whom he had professional dealings as a public servant and one charge of obstructing justice.

According to court documents, Ong’s offence centred on phone conversations held in May 2023. The majority shareholder of Singapore GP Pte Ltd – the company that organises the Singapore F1 Grand Prix – was informed by his associates on May 18 that the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau had seized a flight manifest detailing a trip to Doha.