PETALING JAYA: Malaysian business tycoon Ong Beng Seng bail of S$100,000 (US$75,700) is ‘reasonable’ and within the ‘normal range’ for a corruption offence potentially implicating a public servant, lawyers said.
Ong is out on a S$100,000 (US$75,700) bail after he was arrested in connection with the graft probe involving Singapore Transport Minister S Iswaran.
Channel News Asia (CNA) quoted lawyers stating that a person’s flight risk and the severity of any alleged offence are among the factors the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) will consider when setting bail.
According to lawyers quoted by CNA, Ong’s bail amount of S$100,000 is ‘pretty much average’ for corruption potentially involving a public servant, but ‘might be a bit high’ for private sector graft, said lawyer Adrian Wee from law firm Lighthouse Law.
Ong, who is the managing director of Hotel Properties Limited (HPL) has been granted permission to travel and will surrender his passport to CPIB upon returning to Singapore.
When asked how far along the investigation into Ong might be, Wee said arrests ‘can happen at any time...but the trigger is whether they have reasonable suspicion. When that comes about is hard to say’.
He also added the fact that CPIB has allowed Ong to travel ‘must mean that they are satisfied that the conditions of bail will be sufficient to procure his return’.
It was further reported that CPIB would also consider any potential financial benefit from the acts under investigation, to avoid a situation where the bail amount is ‘dwarfed by that benefit,’ he said.
Meanwhile, senior associate at Withers KhattarWong, Jeremy Pereira opined that the bail of S$100,000 ‘could be considered low especially when one takes into account (Mr Ong’s) high net worth’.
He further said the amount ‘may not be indicative of the scale of the investigations, but likely that they don’t consider him that much of a flight risk’, he said.
Ong and his wife, Singaporean businesswoman Christina Ong, were ranked 24th richest in Singapore last year and estimated by Forbes to have a net worth of US$1.75 billion (S$2.3 billion).
“Having assets within the country is a positive thing for the person who’s being investigated ... it suggests less of a flight risk,“ he said.
“And I would also say that it may not be fair to set bail at a higher amount just because someone has more assets, because then the person’s not being treated equally.”
Speaking on Ong’s nationality, Withers KhattarWong’s Shashi Nathan said, “the fact that a person is not a Singaporean does not in itself make that person a higher flight risk”, He added that having business operations in multiple countries does not in itself increase or decrease flight risk.
“An assessment would have to be made to calibrate the amount of bail sufficient, not only to allow the person to be released from custody, but also to travel out of jurisdictions if necessary,“ said Nathan.
