Overview
- Following a chambers hearing, the court moved the case to oral closing submissions after seven days of trial with four witnesses.
- The lawsuit by K. Shanmugam and Tan See Leng targets a Dec. 12, 2024 Bloomberg story on secrecy in high-end home deals that named their 2023 transactions.
- Cross-examination featured claims that editors repositioned paragraphs to place the ministers near references to money laundering, which the reporter acknowledged as edits but denied were agenda-driven.
- Testimony also covered an omitted analyst view that pricing did not differ between caveated and non-caveated sales, a misattributed message that only said “money laundering saga,” and an SLA e-mail about giving background without pointing to a public portal.
- The ministers seek general and aggravated damages, arguing Bloomberg left the article outside the paywall, while the defense says the piece reflected market reporting rather than a plan to target officials.