On Tuesday (16 Dec), Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam and Manpower Minister Tan See Leng announced plans to take legal action against Bloomberg over an article they claim is defamatory.
Bloomberg, an international media company specialising in business news, published an investigative article on Thursday (12 Dec) discussing “non-caveated” private property transactions in Singapore, including alleged property deals involving the two ministers.
Source: Bloomberg
The media company first stated that Mr Tan purchased a Good Class Bungalow (GCB) in an enclave called Brizay Park for S$27.3 million.
Bloomberg did not include a source of this information in the report.
The article went on to claim that Mr Shanmugam transferred the ownership of a bungalow in Queen Astrid Park area for S$88 million, citing a report by The Online Citizen in September this year.
The article also mentioned this purchase was “done on behalf of an entity called the Jasmine Villa Settlement”. Bloomberg was unable to identify the ultimate beneficiary.
Among other deals listed in the article, Bloomberg included these two transactions under the section “Non-Caveated Deals”.
Both ministers have rejected these claims, calling the article “libellous” and announced via Facebook their intention to issue Letters of Demand to the media outlet.
“We will be taking similar action against others who have also published libellous statements about those transactions. We take a serious view of the allegations,” they said.
Source: 99.co, for illustration purposes only.
According to the Bloomberg article, an increasing number of private property transactions in Singapore are no longer including a legal filing known as property caveats.
It also notes that at least S$1.1 billion worth of deals for GCBs were inked from January this year to early December, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News and List Sotheby’s International Realty.
The media company further claims that nearly half of GCBs purchased from this period did not include a property caveat.
In Singapore, a property caveat is a legal document that can protect a buyer’s interest in a property.
The caveat has to be lodged by a person with an interest in a property (or land) with Singapore Land Authority (SLA).
Once lodged, the details of a caveat can be downloaded from SLA’s Integrated Land Information Service for a price of S$5.95.
It is not mandatory to lodge a URA caveat during a property purchase.
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Featured image adapted from Mr Shanmugam and Mr Tan on Facebook.
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