Defamation trial by Shanmugam, Tan See Leng against Bloomberg begins in High Court

The news agency said the article highlighted that purchases of some GCBs, which are not caveated, bring some privacy benefits and typically transact at a higher price.

It also highlighted that purchasers of such bungalows who do not want their identities to be publicly discoverable use trust structures in their purchases.

A property caveat is a legal document that is submitted to the Singapore Land Authority to register interest in a property that a buyer wishes to purchase. This prevents other people from purchasing it.

Dr Tan’s non-caveated purchase and Mr Shanmugam’s use of a trust structure were mentioned as examples, with no wrongdoing suggested on their parts, Bloomberg maintained.

The news outlet said no “reasonable reader” would infer any link between the sale of Mr Shanmugam’s GCB with money laundering or the possibility of money laundering.

If the article was found to be defamatory, Bloomberg said it would rely on the defence that it was exercising responsible journalism to report on a matter of public interest.

Mr Low’s lawyers stated in his defence that he had exercised “responsible journalism” in writing the article, ensuring his references to the ministers’ transactions were factually accurate, very short and presented neutrally.

He also sought comments from both ministers, but their press secretaries replied that they would not be commenting.

Bloomberg is represented by lawyers from RCLT Law led by Mr Remy Choo, while Mr Wong Thai Yong from his eponymous firm represents Mr Low. They are joined by Senior Counsel Sreenivasan Narayanan and Senior Counsel Chelva Retnam Rajah, who are acting as instructed counsel.

Separately, the two ministers had also sued Mr Terry Xu, the chief editor of socio-political website The Online Citizen, for defamation.

They won the case and Mr Xu was ordered to pay them S$210,000 (US$163,200) each for defaming them in an article about GCBs, which had cited Bloomberg’s news article as a reference.