Mar 25, 2024: Iswaran receives eight new charges
The former minister is accused of obtaining S$19,000 worth of items, including bottles of whisky, golf clubs and a Brompton bicycle from Lum Kok Seng, the managing director of Lum Chang Holdings.
It is the parent company of Lum Chang Building Contractors, which was involved in several government projects.
In 2016, it won a S$325 million contract for works at Tanah Merah MRT station. That contract was named in the fresh charge sheets.
In a bourse filing, Lum Chang Holdings said that Mr Lum had informed the board that he attended “several interviews” with CPIB in relation to its probe into Iswaran.
“No charges have been filed against Mr Lum nor has any restriction been imposed on Mr Lum by the CPIB,” it added.
The Attorney-General’s Chambers told CNA at the time that it would “take a decision in respect of the investigations against Mr Lum” after the completion of Iswaran’s case, similar to what it said about billionaire Ong Beng Seng.
May 8, 2024: Iswaran wins his bid to have all 35 of his charges heard in a single trial instead of two separate trials.
Jul 5, 2024: Iswaran turns up at the High Court in a bid to get the prosecution to hand over all the statements of the witnesses that it intends to call at trial.
Iswaran’s lawyers had already struck out once in this attempt in a June hearing not open to the public.
Jul 19, 2024: A High Court judge tosses out Iswaran’s bid to compel the prosecution to hand over statements of all its witnesses.
Aug 12, 2024: The trial date is fixed for Sep 10 to Sep 13, 2024.
Sep 3, 2024: Iswaran fails in his third attempt to compel the prosecution to provide statements of all its witnesses,
Sep 5, 2024: Less than a week before the trial is set to start, the Attorney-General’s Chambers announces that the trial will be moved to Sep 24.
Both the prosecution and defence had requested the court to adjourn the start of the hearing.
Sep 24, 2024: Iswaran pleads guilty
Iswaran pleaded guilty on what was expected to be the first day of his criminal trial.
Two corruption charges were amended to lesser charges under Section 165, which forbids all public servants from obtaining any valuable thing from someone involved with them in an official capacity, and one charge of obstruction of justice.
He pleaded guilty to four charges under Section 165 and one charge of obstruction of justice.
Another 30 charges will be taken into consideration for sentencing.
The prosecution was seeking a total sentence of six to seven months’ jail, while the defence is seeking no more than eight weeks’ jail.
