Ecclestone Plea Reawakens Singapore Probe Charges
Transport Minister S Iswaran, hotelier Ong Beng Seng still in the hot seat
By: Andy Wong Ming Jun
The October 12 admission of guilt by the diminutive 92-year-old Formula 1 racing empresario Bernie Ecclestone on fraud charges filed by British tax authorities again brings to the fore the ongoing corruption probe against the currently-suspended Singapore Transport Minister S Iswaran and prominent hotelier Ong Beng Seng. The probe, which Singapore officials announced in July against both individuals, has since gone silent with no progress in sight. Ecclestone credited Ong and Iswaran for helping to bring the Formula 1 Grand Prix to Singapore in 2008 during a 2017 interview.
Ecclestone was charged earlier in 2022 for failing to declare more than £400 million (US$492 million at current exchange rates) held in a Singapore-based trust fund, over which he had initially maintained innocence and no knowledge of when first questioned by British revenue and customs officials in 2015 and later in his first court hearing in June of this year. Following his guilty plea, Ecclestone was handed a 17-month jail sentence to be suspended for two years on the condition that he stays crime-free. He has also been ordered to pay up some £726 million (US$882 million) in fines and prosecution costs…