HPL requests trading halt ahead of Ong Beng Seng’s court appearance related to Iswaran case

SINGAPORE – Hotel Properties Limited (HPL), the property and hotel developer co-founded by Mr Ong Beng Seng, requested a trading halt ahead of the Singapore tycoon’s scheduled court appearance on Oct 4.

This was revealed in an announcement on the Singapore Exchange submitted by HPL’s company secretary at about 7.45am.

The reason given for the trading halt is a pending release of an announcement.

Mr Ong, who is HPL’s managing director and controlling shareholder, faces one charge

under Section 165

, where he is accused of abetting a public servant in obtaining gifts, and one charge of abetting the obstruction of justice.

He is scheduled to appear in court at 2.30pm on Oct 4.

It comes a day after former transport minister S. Iswaran was 

sentenced to 12 months’ jail

.

The 62-year-old was convicted of five charges, including accepting a number of valuable items from Mr Ong, including an all-expenses-paid trip to Doha.

Mr Ong was 

arrested by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau

(CPIB) on July 11, 2023, amid a graft probe that involved Iswaran. He is currently out on $800,000 bail.

Court documents showed it was Mr Ong who alerted Iswaran that CPIB had seized the flight manifest for the trip in December 2022, prompting the former Cabinet minister to ask the tycoon to bill him for the flight to avoid investigations into the gifts.

This formed the basis of Iswaran’s obstruction of justice charge.

Mr Ong, 78, is known as

the man who brought Formula One to Singapore in 2008

– the first night race in the sport’s history. He owns the rights to the Singapore Grand Prix.

Iswaran was the chairman of the F1 steering committee. He was also the chief negotiator with Singapore GP on business matters relating to the race.