SINGAPORE – A day before billionaire Ong Beng Seng was scheduled to plead guilty on July 3, the court hearing date was rescheduled to a pre-trial conference on July 8.

Court records on July 2 show the court granted an application to reschedule the hearing date.

In response to queries from The Straits Times, a Singapore Courts spokesperson said the defence and prosecution applied for the hearing to be adjourned for them to file further written submissions on sentencing.

A spokesperson for the Attorney-General’s Chambers said the hearing for Ong to plead guilty will be fixed for a later date.

The 79-year-old property tycoon

with abetting a public servant in obtaining gifts and abetting the obstruction of justice.

Under Section 165, it is an offence for a public servant to accept anything of value from any person with whom he is involved in an official capacity without payment or with inadequate payment.

Hotel Properties Limited, where Ong was managing director, said in an announcement on the Singapore Exchange in February that he intends to plead guilty to the obstruction charge and consents to having the other charge taken into consideration for sentencing.

According to court documents, the businessman in December 2022 allegedly arranged for former transport minister S. Iswaran to

The flight was valued at US$7,700, or about S$10,400 , court documents show .

Ong allegedly arranged for Mr Iswaran a one-night stay at Four Seasons Hotel Doha, valued at $4,737.63, and a business-class flight from Doha to Singapore, valued at $5,700.

Court documents showed it was allegedly Ong who told Mr Iswaran that the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau had seized the flight manifest for the December 2022 trip. It prompted Mr Iswaran to ask the tycoon to bill him for the flight to avoid investigations.

For this alleged offence, Ong was charged with the abetment of obstruction of justice.

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