Former Indian-origin Singapore minister sentenced to 12 months in jail on corruption charges

Singapore. Former Indian-origin Transport Minister S. Iswaran of Singapore was sentenced to 12 months in prison by the High Court on Thursday. He was found guilty of accepting gifts worth 403,300 Singapore dollars in seven years from his two business friends as a public servant. On September 24, 62-year-old Iswaran was convicted of four counts of accepting gifts and obstructing justice. While pronouncing the sentence, Judge Vincent Hoong said that he considered the punishment from both the prosecution and the defense, but they were unable to agree on both the conditions.

The judge said that the former minister misused his position by accepting gifts. He said that Iswaran had called these allegations false by making a public statement. The judge further said, “In the letter sent to the Prime Minister, Iswaran rejected the allegations against him and called it a lie. He was confident that he would be released.” Justice Iswaran said, “The higher the position as a public servant, the higher the level of culpability.” Iswaran’s lawyer Davinder Singh had argued for a sentence of no more than eight months. Deputy Attorney General Tai Wee Shiong sought a sentence of six to seven months. Iswaran’s lawyers asked for the sentence to be postponed until October 7 and for him to surrender in court at 4 pm that day.

Items seized from Iswaran
The charges against Iswaran relate to valuables including theatre shows, football matches and the Singapore F1 Grand Prix, whisky, international flights and hotel stays. The amount involved is more than SGD 400,000 (over USD 300,000). Bottles of whisky and wine, golf clubs and a Brompton bicycle were also seized from him. Iswaran’s charges relate to his relationship with property tycoon Ong Beng Seng and construction firm owner Lum Kok Seng. However, the two businessmen have not been charged. Two of the amended charges involve Ong, who was the majority shareholder of Singapore GP at the time.

The amended charges also state that Iswaran knew that Ong was concerned with the performance of the facility through the Singapore GP Agreement between Singapore GP and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) for the Singapore F1 Grand Prix 2022 to 2028, and that this was linked to Iswaran’s official functions as a minister and chairman of the F1 Steering Committee. The original charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act stated that Iswaran corruptly obtained these gifts from Ong, and did so in exchange for furthering Ong’s business interests.