Singapore Court Orders Bloomberg to Pay Ministers S$460,000 After Finding Defamation in Property Article

A Singapore court ordered Bloomberg and reporter Low De Wei to pay S$460,000 to ministers K Shanmugam and Tan See Leng for defamation over a 2024 article that referenced their property transactions. The BBC reported the ministers sued last year after the article titled "Singapore Mansion Deals Are Increasingly Shrouded in Secrecy" examined how some wealthy buyers used shell companies to obscure purchases of Good Class Bungalows.

It stated that Shanmugam sold a bungalow for S$88m to an unnamed buyer using a trust and that Tan bought one for around S$27m through an arrangement that did not conceal his identity.

The judge found that the article, when read as a whole, implied wrongdoing by linking the ministers to mentions of secrecy and money laundering. Bloomberg stated it did not imply any wrongdoing and had used the ministers as examples of a broader trend. During the April trial the ministers argued the article unfairly associated their deals with concerns about transparency and money laundering.

Bloomberg and Low De Wei argued the story listed the ministers as newsworthy examples and did not imply wrongdoing. Days after the December 2024 publication the ministers announced they would take legal action. Singaporean authorities ordered Bloomberg to attach a correction notice under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act, a 2019 law introduced to address misinformation.

Bloomberg complied but added a note stating it stood by its reporting while publishing under threat of sanction. Shanmugam and Tan also successfully sued the editor-in-chief of The Online Citizen for defamation over a commentary on the Bloomberg article.