Tycoon Mengshan Shane pleaded guilty in corruption case

A Singapore-based billionaire hotelier begged The charge was convicted of a charge, linked to a rare corruption scandal, shocked the country last year.

Ong Beng Seng is accused of providing expensive gifts, including tickets to the Formula One Grand Prix and taking a private jet to former Investment Minister Subramaniam Iswaran, who is engaged in official business.

Unless the market value of the gift is paid to the government, Singapore ministers will not be able to keep the gift and they must announce anything they receive from the people they interact with.

They are also one of the highest-paid ministers in the world, some of which earn more than S$1 million ($758,000; £570,620).

Ong pleaded guilty on Monday to reduce judicial barriers by helping ISWARAN pay business class tickets from Doha to Singapore to the Singapore Grand Prix.

The 79-year-old was also accused of teaching to Iswaran to receive all the fees paid for Doha, which is said to be worth around SGD20,850 ($16,188; £12,194).

Ong faces up to two years in prison for teaching civil servants to receive gifts, and the maximum prison he faces is an obstacle to justice.

The two men were arrested in July 2023, and the fee sheet revealed that ISWARAN is talented over 403,000 ($311,882; £234,586) for flights, hotel accommodation, musicals and Grand Prix tickets.

At the time of crime, Iswaran was the government’s F1 Steering Committee and the chief negotiator for F1-related business affairs.

ONG helped bring the F1 Grand Prix to Singapore, and his company, Hotel Real Estate Limited (HPL), owns a brand like four seasons and operates Marriott under it.

Singapore’s lawmakers are one of the world’s highest-paid lawmakers, and leaders say it’s a battle with corruption and proven handsome salary.

Born in Malaysia in 1946, Ong moved to Singapore as a child and founded a hotel and real estate company in the 1980s.

ONG suffers from rare bone marrow cancer and the court previously allowed him to go abroad for medical and work purposes.

Hotel Properties Limited said in early April that ONG will resign from its managing director’s “management of medical conditions.”