SINGAPORE – Property tycoon Ong Beng Seng, who is currently overseas, has been given permission to travel to three more cities but the agreed-upon duration of his trip remains unchanged.

Ong, who is facing charges in a case allegedly linked to former transport minister S. Iswaran, had earlier been granted approval by the court to leave Singapore from April 28 to May 16 to travel to the United States, Britain and Italy for work and medical reasons.

On May 9, a Singapore Courts spokeswoman said in response to queries by The Straits Times that the court approved Ong’s application to vary some of the destinations to include Venice and Bari in Italy, and Dubrovnik, a city in Croatia.

These three cities were added to the list of locations that Ong had said he was expected to visit, which includes London, Boston, Miami, New York and Florence.

The spokeswoman added that the terms of his bail while he is overseas remain unchanged.

As part of the conditions, the 79-year-old Malaysian must provide the full details of where he will be staying and his contact numbers to the investigating officer (IO) handling his case or an officer acting under the latter.

Ong must also remain contactable by the IO and surrender his passport to the officer within 24 hours upon return to Singapore.

His current bail of $800,000 has been doubled to $1.6 million.

Iswaran was the chairman of the F1 steering committee and the Government’s chief negotiator with Singapore GP on business matters related to the race.

The two men had worked in the mid-2000s to convince then Formula One Group chief executive Bernie Ecclestone to make Singapore the venue for the sport’s first night race.

According to court documents, the businessman in December 2022 allegedly instigated Iswaran to fly on Ong’s private plane from Singapore to Doha.

The flight was valued at US$7,700 (S$10,400), according t...