Singapore court orders Bloomberg to pay $356,000 to ministers in defamation case

A Singapore court has ordered Bloomberg and one of its reporters to pay S$460,000 ($356,000; £266,000) to two ministers who had sued them for defamation over an article referencing their property transactions.

In her verdict, High Court judge Audrey Lim said that the "natural and ordinary meaning" of the article is that the ministers "took advantage" of existing regulations to deal their properties in a "non-transparent manner", and that they did so "to avoid scrutiny that might extend to the possibility of money laundering".

The piece also noted that Tan, the Minister for Manpower, had bought a Good Class Bungalow for around S$27m - citing him as one example among a list of other public figures who had bought luxury estates through an arrangement known as a non-caveated deal, that makes it harder to track who is involved in the transaction.