Ong Beng Seng, Singapore-based Malaysian F1 tycoon, to plead guilty in corruption case involving ex-minister

By Dat Nguyen June 10, 2025 | 08:19 pm PT

Singapore-based Malaysian billionaire Ong Beng Seng, who is credited with bringing Formula One to Singapore, is scheduled to plead guilty on July 3 in a high-profile corruption case involving former transport minister S. Iswaran.

It remains uncertain whether Ong, 79, will admit to one or both charges against him, according to a pre-trial in Singapore on Tuesday, The Straits Times reported.

Ong Beng Seng is seen ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix in September 2023. Photo by Reuters

Ong was charged in October 2024 with abetting a public official in accepting gifts and with attempting to obstruct justice.

The charges concern Ong’s arrangement to pay for Iswaran’s flights and hotel during a trip from Singapore to Doha in 2022. The total covered cost was SGD20,850 (US$16,200), according to Channel News Asia.

It included transporting Iswaran on Ong’s private plane to Doha, giving him a one-night stay at the Four Seasons Hotel Doha, and returning him to Singapore on a business-class flight.

Ong later allegedly informed Iswaran that the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau had obtained the flight manifest for the December 2022 trip, and urged Iswaran to request that Ong bill him for the flight to evade scrutiny.

For this act, Ong was charged with abetting the obstruction of justice.

In the mid-2000s, Ong, who at the time was the managing director of property developer Hotel Properties Ltd which owns the Four Seasons in Singapore, and Iswaran collaborated to persuade then Formula One Group chief executive Bernie Ecclestone to host the sport’s inaugural night race in Singapore. Ong stepped down from his director position in April this year.

In October last year, Iswaran received a 12-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to five charges, including accepting valuable items as a public servant from Ong and David Lum Kok Seng, managing director of Lum Chang Holdings.

Iswaran was placed on the Home Detention Scheme on February 7, 2025, and, according to the Singapore Prison Service on June 6, he completed his emplacement and is no longer in prison custody.

Ong and his wife Christina were worth US$1.7 billion in Forbes’ billionaire list last year. They, however, were not included in this year’s list.

Ong has been receiving chemotherapy treatment for bone marrow cancer. in April he was granted permission to travel overseas for medical purposes, having paid US$1.2 million in bail.