Singapore transport minister S. Iswaran accused of obtaining F1 tickets worth US14,900 in corruption probe

He faces 27 charges in all – of which, 24 involve obtaining gratification as a public servant, two centre on corruption, and the last pertains to obstructing the course of justice.

These include general admission tickets to the 2019 race worth over S$20,000 (US14,892).

The charges conclude months of speculation surrounding the high-profile case that had shocked citizens when it first came to light last year.

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The city state’s anti-corruption watchdog first revealed on July 12 last year that Iswaran, who has been in politics for nearly three decades, was assisting with an investigation uncovered by the agency.

The director of the Corrupt Practices Investigations Bureau (CPIB) had briefed Lee and sought his approval to open a formal investigation on July 5 before the process was launched on July 11, a statement from the premier’s office said.

The CPIB later said that Iswaran and Ong were arrested on July 11.

Singapore has prided itself on being a corruption-free city, consistently ranking highly on global anti-corruption indexes. It was placed fifth least corrupt country in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index in 2022, just after several Nordic countries and New Zealand.

The last time a top official had been caught up in a probe of such a scale was in 1986, involving then minister for national development Teh Cheang Wan over accepting bribes. He committed suicide by overdosing on barbiturates before he could be formally charged in court.

Observers who spoke to This Week in Asia earlier said the long-ruling People’s Action Party was facing a major internal crisis of a magnitude not seen in decades.

Lee has said he will hand over the premiership to anointed successor Wong by November when the PAP marks its 70th anniversary.

This will be the country’s 15th general election, with Lee having led the party in the last four polls.

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The Lees then issued a statement saying that they had received “unsolicited” discounts of between 5 to 12 per cent on two pairs of new condominiums they had bought, but both leaders were later cleared of any wrongdoing.

Iswaran has been involved in politics since 1997 and was appointed to Lee’s cabinet in 2006.

Before his foray into politics, he held senior positions within the bureaucracy as a member of the prestigious Administrative Service on top of high-ranking roles at state-linked enterprises, such as Temasek Holdings.

Iswaran had served as the leading representative for the PAP’s five-person MP slate in the West Coast group representative constituency, which experienced a closely contested battle during the last general election in 2020.

He eventually secured victory, obtaining 51.68 per cent of the vote.