At Iswaran’s sentencing last October, the court heard that Iswaran requested Ong bill him for a business class flight from Doha to Singapore, after he discovered that he could have been implicated while police were investigating a seperate incident.
The judge said that he acted with deliberation and premeditation to avoid a probe.
On Monday, the 79-year-old Ong pleaded guilty to belatedly billing Iswaran for the expense.
A second charge of abetting Iswaran’s acceptance of the all-expenses paid trip to Doha, said to be worth around S$20,850 ($16,188; £12,194), was also taken into account.
In December 2022, Ong had invited Iswaran on the trip to Qatar, saying he would take care of the trip’s expenses, which included hotel accomodation and a flight to Doha on Ong’s private jet.
Iswaran accepted the invitation but said he would need to arrive in Singapore on a specific date, with Ong responding that he would arrange for Iswaran to travel from Doha to Singapore on a commercial flight.
It was this flight, said to be worth around S$5,700, that Iswaran belatedly made payment to Ong’s company for, after he found out that Singapore’s corruption bureau was investigating a separate investigation relating to Ong’s associates – and had seized the flight manifest which had details of his trip to Doha as part of it.
He then asked Ong to have his company, Singapore GP, bill him for the trip.
The two men were arrested in July 2023 and charge sheets revealed that Iswaran was gifted more than S$403,000 ($311,882; £234,586) worth of flights, hotel stays, musicals and grand prix tickets.
At the time of the offences Iswaran was in the government’s F1 steering committee and the chief negotiator on F1-related business matters.
Born in Malaysia in 1946 – which was then Malaya – Ong moved to Singapore as a child and founded a hotel and property company in the 1980s.
Ong helped bring the F1 Grand Prix to Singapore and his company Hotel Properties Limited (HPL) has brands like the Four Seasons and Marriott operating under it.
Hotel Properties Limited had earlier in April said that Ong would step down as its managing director “manage his medical conditions”.
Singapore’s lawmakers are among the highest-paid in the world, with leaders justifying the handsome salaries by saying it combats corruption.