Iswaran pleads guilty to 5 charges after corruption charges replaced

Former Minister for Transport S Iswaran has pleaded guilty after his corruption charges were replaced with charges under Section 165 of the Penal Code.

Previously, he faced 35 charges, two of which were corruption charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The two charges were amended to charges under Section 165 of the Penal Code, which makes it an offence for a public servant to accept anything of value without payment or with inadequate payment from any person with whom he is involved in an official capacity.

The prosecution stated that they would proceed on five charges: four under Section 165 of the Penal Code and one charge of obstruction of justice.

For the charge of obstruction of justice, Iswaran admitted to repaying S$5,700 to Singapore GP Pte Ltd, the cost of his business class ticket for a Dec. 11 flight from Doha to Singapore that he had taken at Ong Beng Seng's expense through Singapore GP.

The remaining 30 charges will be considered for the purposes of sentencing.

Iswaran's defence lawyer, Senior Counsel Davinder Singh, had earlier said Iswaran "will be taking a certain course of action" in light of the fact that the charges will not be proceeding under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Iswaran was then read his charges, and he rose to say he was pleading guilty.

His lawyer also confirmed that his client was pleading guilty.

Previous charges of corruption

Initially, the first corruption charge against Iswaran alleged that he corruptly obtained gratification worth S$145,434 from property tycoon Ong Beng Seng.

This was in exchange for advancing Ong's business interests in relation to a contract between Singapore GP and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).

Iswaran was also previously accused of corruptly obtaining 10 Green Room tickets (worth about S$48,150), eight tickets to F1 venue Twenty3 (worth about S$56,068), and 32 general admission tickets (S$41,216 respectively) to the 2022 Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix for September 2022.

The second corruption charge alleged that Iswaran corruptly obtained gratification from Ong, in exchange for advancing his business interests over a contract with a public body over the Singapore GP-STB facilitation agreement, as well as a proposal for a contract with STB to establish the ABBA Voyage virtual concert in Singapore.

This allegedly took place in December 2022.

According to the charge sheets, he allegedly took an outbound flight on Ong’s private plane from Singapore to Doha worth about S$10,410.40.

He also received a one-night stay in Four Seasons Doha, worth about S$4,737.63, and a business class flight from Doha to Singapore, worth about S$5,700, from Ong through Singapore GP Pte Ltd.

Top photos via Andrew Koay/Mothership