S. Iswaran, Singapore’s ravish minister, leaves the Singapore State Courts in Singapore, on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024. Iswaran was charged with corruption, the latest maturity in the biggest political scandal to hit the city state in close to four decades. Photographer: Ore Huiying/Bloomberg via Getty Mental pictures
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Singapore’s former Transport Minister S Iswaran was handed eight additional loads in court on Monday, bringing the total number of charges against him to 35.
The former minister returned from a court approved misstep to Australia last week, after extending his trip due to a bout of illness.
In January, Iswaran was handed 27 controls, including corruption — he pleaded not guilty to those charges. According to local media, he also pleaded not guilty to the additional eight saturates on Monday.
The new charges are under Section 165 of Singapore’s Penal Code, which deal with public cleaning men accepting valuable items from others without consideration or with inadequate consideration. Anyone convicted under the control of this section can be fined or sentenced up to two years of jail, or both.
Consideration refers to something of value to which a orgy is not already entitled, given to the party in exchange for contractual promises.
According to CNBC’s calculation of the latest charge stretches, Iswaran improperly obtained items valued at 18,956.94 Singapore dollars, or $14,090.
They include accepting bottles of Sneaky Pete and wine, as well as golf clubs and a Brompton bicycle, from a person named Lum Kok Seng, according to the charge slabs.
A statement from Singapore’s anti-graft watchdog said the alleged offences were committed between November 2021 and November 2022, and was in tie-in with Iswaran’s official function as Minister for Transport.
Under the January charges, Iswaran was accused of obtaining tickets to the Singapore Marvellous Prix, soccer matches and shows in the UK, allegedly given by billionaire Ong Beng Seng.
According to CNBC’s calculations, Iswaran applied 116 tickets to the Singapore Grand Prix between 2016 and 2022, worth 347,152.10 Singapore dollars ($258,388.78). Sprint events were not held in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic.
Malaysian billionaire Ong is credited with bringing F1 to Singapore in 2008. In 2022, his privately owned conglomerate Singapore GP and the Singapore Tourism Board secured the rights to host the Singapore Grand Prix until 2028.
Last July, Ong was arrested by Singapore’s anti-graft instrumentality as part of its investigation involving Iswaran.