SINGAPORE: The group sizes of the private dinners involving convicted money launderer Su Haijin and Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat, labour chief Ng Chee Meng and Health Minister Ong Ye Kung complied with the applicable COVID-19 safe management measures at the time, said local businessman Sam Goi.
In a statement issued to the media on Friday (May 9), Mr Goi said he had checked his records and provided the dates for each of the three dinners, which he earlier said he had organised and paid for.
This comes after pictures of the gatherings were posted online by former Reform Party chairman and fugitive lawyer Charles Yeo.
Mr Goi said the dinner with Mr Chee was held on Nov 19, 2020, when Singapore had a five-person limit on social gatherings. In the photo of this gathering, there were five people.
The dinner with Mr Ng was held on May 1, 2021, when social gatherings were limited to eight people. Only Mr Ng and Su were seen in the photo of this gathering.
The dinner with Mr Ong was held on May 10, 2022, said Mr Goi. There were 14 people in the picture of this event. At that time, Singapore had no group size limit in place.
“The group size on each occasion was in full compliance with the applicable COVID safe management measures at the material time,” said Mr Goi, the owner and executive chairman of Tee Yih Jia Food Manufacturing.
Mr Goi had earlier told Bloomberg that the dinner with Mr Ng took place at some point in “around 2020”, with Bloomberg reporting that all three meals took place before Singapore implemented any of the COVID-19 restrictions that the country saw that year.
