Tycoon who brought F1 to Singapore pleads guilty in graft case

A Malaysian hotel tycoon who helped bring Formula One to Singapore pleaded guilty Monday to abetting the obstruction of justice, in a rare corruption case in the city-state that saw a former transport minister jailed last year.

Singapore-based billionaire Ong Beng Seng, 79, was charged in October last year with helping former transport minister S. Iswaran cover up evidence in a graft investigation.

He was also accused of showering Iswaran with lavish gifts, including tickets to the 2017 Singapore Formula One Grand Prix, flights on a private jet, business class travel and a luxury hotel stay.

Ong entered his guilty plea from a glass-encased dock at a district court in downtown Singapore on Monday.

Prosecutors sought a two-month jail term after Ong agreed to plead guilty. He will be sentenced on August 15.

But prosecutors also agreed with defence lawyers that the court could exercise "judicial mercy" in view of Ong's poor health -- which could further reduce any sentence.

Defence lawyers pleaded for clemency, saying their septuagenarian client suffered from a litany of serious ailments, including an incurable form of cancer.

They asked for a "stiff fine" instead of actual jail time.

"The risks to Mr. Ong's life increase dramatically in prison," lawyer Cavinder Bull told the court, saying prison could not give his client sufficient care.

The Attorney General's Chambers said in a statement that after "considering the medical evidence before the Court", the prosecutors did not object to imposing a fine instead of jail time.

The trial of Malaysia-born Ong had attracted significant media attention due to his links with Iswaran and the affluent city-state's reputation as one of the world's least corrupt nations.

Ong owns Singapore-based Hotel Properties Limited and is the rights holder to the Singapore Grand Prix Formula One race.

He and Iswaran were instrumental in bringing the Formula One night race on a street circuit to Singapore in 2008.

In July 2023, Ong was arrested as part of a graft probe involving Iswaran and was subsequently released on bail.

In October last year, Iswaran was jailed for 12 months after he pleaded guilty to accepting illegal gifts worth more than Sg$400,000 ($310,000).

He was also found guilty of obstructing justice, in the city-state's first political graft trial in nearly half a century.