SINGAPORE: On Oct 30 (Wednesday), a court permitted Malaysian tycoon Ong Beng Seng to take a 10-day trip to the United States and Europe for medical and work purposes.
Ong paid S$800,000 in cash bail on top of the S$800,000 in bail he previously paid, for a total of S$1.6 million.
His lawyer, Aaron Lee from Allen & Gledhill, said that the 78-year-old billionaire is headed for Boston, Massachusetts, for medical treatment and then to Gibraltar and Spain for business.
There are additional conditions for his bail, which include submitting his travel itinerary and addresses of his homes abroad to his investigating officer. Ong also needs to stay contactable at all hours.
Ong is set to leave Singapore on Thursday (Oct 31) and is scheduled to be back on Nov 9. He will be required to surrender his passport upon his return.
CNA quoted the tycoon’s lawyers as saying the tycoon was “very grateful” for the “urgent hearing” he had been given on Oct 30.
Earlier this month, Ong was charged with abetting a public servant to obtain gifts and obstructing justice. The charges against him include one count under Section 165 of the Penal Code and another under Section 204A.
The charges against the tycoon are connected to those brought against former Transport Minister S Iswaran, who pleaded guilty on Sept 24 to four charges under Section 165 of the Penal Code.
This section disallows public servants from obtaining any valuable thing from a person involved with them in an official capacity. Iswaran also pleaded guilty to one charge of obstruction of justice.
Ong reportedly told Iswaran that the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) had taken the flight manifest for a trip he took in Dec 2022, which caused the former minister to have Ong send him the bill for the flight to avoid investigations.
The former Transport Minister is said to have accepted from Ong valuable things worth more than S$384,000 between November 2015 and December 2022, including F1 tickets worth S$347,152.10, tickets to plays and musicals worth S$10,693.91, flights and accommodation worth S$20,848.03, and tickets to football matches worth S$5,646.94.
Mr Ong is best known for bringing F1 to the country, launching the Singapore Grand Prix in 2008. Being a friend of F1 boss Bernie Eccleston, Mr Ong helped seal the deal in 2007 that brought the race to Singapore.
An article by Reuters from March 2007 reported that Mr Ong had met with Bernie Ecclestone, the former chief executive of Formula One Group, that year to discuss the event launch in Singapore. /TISG
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