Former Transport Minister S Iswaran returned to court on Monday (Mar 25) to receive eight fresh charges, two months after he was first charged with multiple offences including corruption.
The eight new charges come under Section 165 of the Penal Code, which makes it an offence for public servants to obtain valuable items from someone involved with them in an official capacity.
Iswaran is accused of obtaining items such as bottles of whisky, golf clubs and a Brompton bicycle from a man named Lum Kok Seng, who is listed online as the managing director of Lum Chang Holdings.
It is the parent company of Lum Chang Building Contractors, which won a contract in 2016 for works at Tanah Merah MRT station.
Although Iswaran became Transport Minister only in 2021, charge sheets stated that he knew about Mr Lum’s business connections to his ministerial role when the offences allegedly occurred between November 2021 and November 2022.
The items Iswaran was alleged to have received were worth nearly S$19,000 (US$14,110), the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) said in a separate statement on Monday.
The 61-year-old pleaded not guilty as well to the new charges. He now faces a total of 35 charges.
CNA
