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Malaysian property tycoon Ong Beng Seng pleads guilty to abetting Singapore ex-minister Iswaran in obstructing justice
SINGAPORE, Aug 4 — Property tycoon Ong Beng Seng today pleaded guilty to abetting former Transport Minister S Iswaran in obstructing justice by helping him pay S$5,700 for a flight ticket from Doha to Singapore.
The delayed payment was made months after the December 2022 trip and only after the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) found Iswaran’s name on the flight manifest while probing another case.
Ong, 79, also had a second charge taken into consideration, for instigating Iswaran to obtain flights and a hotel stay from him despite knowing he had business dealings with the minister’s official role.
The Malaysian businessman’s guilty plea comes around a month after Iswaran was released on remission following a 12-month jail sentence and completion of home detention.
Ong, who helped bring Formula 1 to Singapore in 2008, was first charged in October 2024 with two offences that matched those Iswaran later pleaded guilty to.
Iswaran was sentenced in October to four months’ jail for obstructing justice, as part of a 12-month term covering five charges, with another 30 taken into consideration.
The Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) said after Iswaran’s sentencing that Ong would not face charges related to the other matters involving Iswaran.
“In arriving at this decision, the prosecution considered all the relevant facts and circumstances of the case, including the role that Ong played in each of the transactions,” said the AGC at the time.
It later emerged that Ong was undergoing chemotherapy for bone marrow cancer.
Ong was and remains the majority shareholder of Singapore GP, which organised the Singapore Grand Prix from 2008 to 2023, except during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Iswaran, who was Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations and chaired the F1 Steering Committee, accepted Ong’s offer to join a private jet trip to Qatar in December 2022.
The CPIB discovered the flight manifest in May 2023 while investigating another matter, leading to Ong and Iswaran coordinating a belated payment for the return flight.
