Two years after trip to Qatar with Iswaran, Ong Beng Seng to plead guilty

It was discovered by chance in May 2023, as the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) was probing a separate matter.

Investigators found the manifest of a private plane while looking into associates of property tycoon Ong Beng Seng, who owned the aircraft.

One name stood out in particular - Mr S. Iswaran's. He was a close friend of Ong's, with the pair going back about two decades.

The two men had travelled together on Dec 10, 2022, after the then Transport Minister accepted the billionaire's invitation for an all-expenses-paid trip to Qatar.

They flew there on the private plane, with Mr Iswaran returning the next day on a business-class flight.

The trip sparked a separate investigation by CPIB, which eventually led to the conviction on Oct 3, 2024, of a former Cabinet minister, a first in Singapore.

After several hearing adjournments, and more than two years after the discovery of the flight manifest, Ong is finally slated to plead guilty on Aug 4 to abetment of obstruction of justice, a charge related to the trip.

The 79-year-old businessman had earlier indicated that he will consent to having a second charge - of abetting a public servant in obtaining gifts - taken into consideration for sentencing.

Prosecutors will claim that it was Ong who allegedly alerted Mr Iswaran to the fact that CPIB had seized the flight manifest.

It was this alert which led to Mr Iswaran, 63, requesting a bill for the $5,700 business-class flight from Doha to Singapore on Dec 11, 2022.

At Mr Iswaran's sentencing, prosecutors pointed out that the bill was sent out only around May 25, 2023, more than five months after the trip.

More than friends

Ong, a Singapore permanent resident who was born in Teluk Intan, Malaysia, had amassed his wealth through ventures in the hospitality, property and retail sectors.

His wife - Ms Christina Fu - is a prominent businesswoman.

Ong set up Hotel Properties Limited (HPL) in 1980 and went on to acquire a number of hotels around the world, and properties in prime locations such as Orchard Road.

He was also the majority shareholder of Singapore GP, and the man who brought Formula One (F1) to Singapore in 2008 - the first night race in the sport's history.

In 2022, he was involved in a contract between Singapore GP and the Singapore Tourism Board, a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

Mr Iswaran was then chairman of the F1 steering committee.

In December 2022, Ong had allegedly extended an invitation by the chairman of the Qatar World Cup organising committee to Mr Iswaran.

The tycoon is said to have told his friend that he would go on the trip as his guest. He said he would take care of all expenses, including hotel accommodation.

Mr Iswaran then applied for urgent leave and flew to Doha on the hotelier's private jet.

He stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel, with Ong allegedly picking up the tab. Mr Iswaran did not pay for his flight to Doha or the hotel stay, and did not declare them to the Government.

In sentencing Mr Iswaran, Justice Vincent Hoong described Ong as cultivating goodwill when offering gifts to and acceding to requests from Mr Iswaran for various items, including tickets for football matches.

Ong and Mr Iswaran were arrested on the same day on July 11, 2023.

The former Cabinet minister eventually was handed a jail term of 12 months after he pleaded guilty to five charges, including four for obtaining valuable items as a public servant, an offence under Section 165 of the Penal Code.

The offence penalises public servants who obtain or accept gifts, or attempt to do so, from an individual with whom the public servant has official dealings without necessarily giving or doing anything in return.

Mr Iswaran, who admitted to obtaining items worth more than $400,000 from Ong and Mr David Lum, managing director of construction company Lum Chang Holdings, became the first person to be convicted of the offence since Singapore's independence.

Ong was first supposed to plead guilty on April 2 this year, but this was postponed after his lawyers asked for an extension to obtain his medical report.

The businessman has multiple myeloma, which is a type of blood cancer affecting the bone marrow predominantly and is characterised by excessive multiplication of a type of white blood cells called plasma cells.

During earlier proceedings, he was allowed by the court to go abroad for medical and work purposes.

This included permission to travel to the US, Britain and Italy from April 28 to May 16.

On April 14 in an exchange filing, HPL said that Ong will step down as its managing director at the close of the company's annual general meeting on April 29, with the tycoon indicating he wanted to devote more time to managing his medical conditions.

A court date was then set for him to plead guilty on July 3, but this was rescheduled one day before the hearing as the prosecution and defence needed more time to file further submissions on sentencing.

Ong is expected to be represented on Aug 4 by a team of lawyers including Senior Counsel Cavinder Bull, the chief executive officer of Drew & Napier.

The case will be heard by Principal District Judge Lee Lit Cheng.

If convicted of obstruction of justice, Ong can be jailed for up to seven years, fined or both.