Hotel tycoon Ong Beng Seng plans to plead guilty to one charge related to the offences of former transport minister S. Iswaran, who was convicted in October of breaking the law for receiving gifts from the businessman.
Ong, 79, also consented to have a second charge taken into consideration for the purposes of sentencing at a court hearing scheduled on April 2, according to a statement from Hotel Properties, in which the tycoon serves as managing director.
In October, prosecutors charged Ong for abetting ex-transport minister S. Iswaran over two flights, a night’s stay at the Four Seasons hotel in Doha, along with Formula-1 tickets. Ong—whose company Singapore GP is the organizer of the Formula 1 night race in Singapore—is out on bail.
Hotel Properties said Ong will remain managing director of the Singapore-listed company for the time being. “The Nominating Committee has assessed the above, and is of the view that at this juncture, Ong continues to be suitable to carry out his duties and responsibilities as managing director,” the company said in the statement issued late Friday.
The committee will continue to monitor the situation and re-assess Ong’s suitability to remain the company’s managing director in the future, it added. Besides grappling with the court case, Ong is also currently battling a rare type of bone marrow cancer.
Ong and wife Christina are the controlling shareholders of Hotel Properties, which has a portfolio of 38 hotels in 17 countries, including the Four Seasons in Singapore. The couple also has interests in London-listed handbag maker Mulberry. They are among the wealthiest in the city-state with a combined net worth of $1.7 billion, according to the list of Singapore’s 50 richest published by Forbes in September.
Malaysia-born Ong is among the prominent deal makers in the city-state. In November, a unit of Hotel Properties bought out the rest of Concorde Hotel in Singapore’s main shopping strip. Earlier this year, another subsidiary divested their shares in shopping mall operator Paragon REIT for an undisclosed amount so that the group can focus on redeveloping three of its adjoining prime properties in the Orchard Road area, a project that analysts estimate could cost between S$1 billion ($740 million) and S$2 billion.
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