Just when you thought that the charges against former Transport Minister S Iswaran were all related to Ong Beng Seng, there’s now a twist.
On 25 March 2024, mere days after he came back to Singapore after a trip to Australia to help his son settle into university there, he was hauled back to court to face eight more charges.
This time, the charges aren’t related to billionaire Ong Beng Seng or event tickets, but a certain Lum Kok Seng and…whisky, golf clubs and a Brompton bicycle?
Here’s what you need to know.
S Iswaran Faces 8 More Charges But This Time, It’s Not Related to Ong Beng Seng
This morning, Iswaran went back to court, and did a “Pritam Singh”.
Other than having a memorable one-liner, whereby he smiled and said, “Sorry you all had to get up so early this morning,” a member of the media also tripped and fell, and was helped by Iswaran.
If not for the time stamp, I would’ve thought that this was a deepfaked video #justsaying
Here’s Pritam Singh’s walk:
But his case has been transferred to the High Court; why was he in the States Court?
Pretty sure it’s not because his Grab driver is someone who’d bring you to VivoCity when you specifically wrote VeloCity in the app: the High Court is near City Hall MRT Station, while the States Courts is near Chinatown MRT Station.
Apparently, it’s because he had to face new charges.
People who have ongoing High Court cases would have to return to the State Courts if additional charges are filed against them.
Today’s hearing was to tender the additional charges and to have the new charges transferred to the High Court.
Shortly after his appearance, CPIB released a statement.
The former Transport Minister has been charged with “eight additional counts of obtaining, as a public servant, valuable things with a total value of about S$18,956.94, for no consideration, from one Lum Kok Seng (林國城), whom S Iswaran knew to be concerned in business transacted which had a connection with his official function as Minister for Transport.”
CPIB added, “These alleged offences were committed between November 2021 and November 2022 and are punishable under section 165 of the Penal Code.”
According to the charge sheets, Iswaran is alleged to have received a TaylorMade golf driver worth $749; a set of Honma Beres BE-08 Black AQ MX golf clubs worth $4,420 and a Scotty Cameron Phantom golf putter worth $600 and two golf chippers worth around $100 each.
Iswaran has also allegedly received two bottles of Gordon & MacPhail Caol Ila whisky worth $542.23 and two bottles of M&H Elements Sherry Cask whisky worth $198, as well as various bottles of wine.
Lastly, he received a Brompton T Line bicycle worth $7,907.50 as well.
This happened between November 2021 and November 2022.
Iswawan had pleaded not guilty to the charges.
With so many reporters falling down, the key question we (and all reporters) have nowadays should be this: would there be more charges?
During the hearing, Iswaran’s lawyer said that there was no mention of “possibility of more charges”, since the prosecution had previously said that they had gone through the evidence and dropped nine charges.
It turned out that CPIB had asked Iswaran to their office on 18 March and told him about the new eight charges.
Back then, Iswaran had asked when the new charges would be brought to court, and CPIB allegedly said they had not decided whether the charges would be brought.
CPIB then told Iswaran on 22 March that they will file the eight charges.
The Chief Prosecutor merely said, “All charges are tendered against the accused person in this case based on evidence received by CPIB and reviewed by AGC.”
He then said that they can raise these matters before the High Court.
His next hearing will be on 2 April 2024.
You can watch this video to know more about his previous charges: