{"id":3206,"date":"2024-10-04T09:01:11","date_gmt":"2024-10-04T09:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/04\/billionaire-who-brought-f1-to-singapore-charged-in-landmark-corruption-probe\/"},"modified":"2024-10-04T09:01:11","modified_gmt":"2024-10-04T09:01:11","slug":"billionaire-who-brought-f1-to-singapore-charged-in-landmark-corruption-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/04\/billionaire-who-brought-f1-to-singapore-charged-in-landmark-corruption-probe\/","title":{"rendered":"Billionaire who brought F1 to Singapore charged in landmark corruption probe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            A Singapore court charged a property billionaire on Friday with obstructing justice and abetting offenses by a\u00a0disgraced ex-transport minister\u00a0jailed a day earlier in the city-state\u2019s high-profile government graft case.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            Ong\u00a0Beng\u00a0Seng, the 78-year-old owner of Hotel Properties Ltd\u00a0and the rights holder to the Singapore Grand Prix Formula One race, is accused of giving high-value gifts to ex-minister S. Iswaran, who on Thursday became the first former cabinet member to be jailed in Singapore.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            The case has been the subject of major intrigue in Singapore, a wealthy financial hub that offers ministers salaries of more than S$1 million dollars ($771,247) to deter graft and prides itself on its reputation for clean governance.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            Iswaran was imprisoned for 12 months for obstructing justice and improperly receiving gifts as a public servant, with Ong a central part of the prosecution\u2019s case.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            Ong has so far issued no comment on the accusations. Channel NewsAsia said he entered no plea on Friday and did not indicate how he would plead.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            Ong\u2019s firm, Singapore-listed Hotel Properties, requested a trading halt early on Friday following Thursday\u2019s announcement that he would be charged.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            During Iswaran\u2019s trial, prosecutors said the ex-minister received gifts worth more than $300,000, including tickets to English Premier League soccer matches, the F1 Grand Prix, London musicals and a ride on a private jet to Doha.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            Ong was charged with one count of abetting Iswaran\u2019s receiving of valuables and one count of obstruction of justice, according to the charge sheet.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            During Iswaran\u2019s trial, the court heard how the minister had asked Ong to bill him for the Doha trip on the private jet, after he discovered the anti-graft agency had seized the flight manifest for an unrelated case.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            Justice Vincent Hoong, who presided over Iswaran\u2019s case, said on Thursday the minister\u2019s request to be billed was a deliberate move to obstruct the course of justice and try to evade investigation.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            Channel NewsAsia said Ong\u2019s court hearing was adjourned until pre-trial proceedings on November 15.    <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div>This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Singapore court charged a property billionaire on Friday with obstructing justice and abetting offenses by a\u00a0disgraced ex-transport minister\u00a0jailed a day earlier in the city-state\u2019s high-profile government graft case. Ong\u00a0Beng\u00a0Seng, the 78-year-old owner of Hotel Properties Ltd\u00a0and the rights holder to the Singapore Grand Prix Formula One race, is accused of giving high-value gifts to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}