"There is no way a Minister can avoid investigations and a trial if there is evidence to support one".
- then Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, quoted in the Straits Times, Jan 27, 1987
| Tan Kia Gan, then Minister for National Development, was investigated in August 1966 for attempting to help his close businessman friend Lim Tjin Hauw and his son William Lim to clinch the sale of Boeing aircraft to Malaysian Airways. He also acted as an intermediary for his brother-in-law in the sale of a tin mine to Lim. For this, he was given 70,000 shares worth $1 each. As the witnesses did not want to implicate him, Tan Kia Gan was administratively stripped of all his public appointments by the Government. | |
| Wee Toon Boon, then Minster of State for Environment, was charged for corruption involving $839,023 in April 1975. Investigation revealed that Wee was involved with a developer Lauw Tjin Ho, then Chairman of Lauw and Sons Pte Ltd. He used his ministerial status to make representation to civil servants on behalf of Lauw. In return, he was rewarded with a bunglow, worth $532,000, galvanised roofing for his home worth $3,500, free air tickets for him and his family to Indonesia and bank overdrafts totalling $300,000 to speculate in shares. He was convicted and sentenced to 4 1/2 years' imprisonment and ordered to pay a penalty of $7,023. His jail sentence was reduced to 18 months after he successfully appealed against one of the 5 charges. | |
| Teh Cheang Wan, then Minister for National Development, was investigated in 1986 for accepting 2 bribes totalling $1 million from Hock Tat Development Pte Ltd and Ho Yeow Koon of Keck Seng Pte Ltd in 1981 and 1982 respectively. Hock Tat Development had paid Teh a gratification of $500,000 after he helped the company to retain a piece of land that was earmarked for acquisition by the Government. Ho Yeow Koon had also given a gratification of $500,000 to Teh for helping to buy over a piece of State land for private development. Teh committed suicide before he could be formally charged in court. He maintained till the end that he was innocent. | | |