Bloomberg and its journalist Low De Wei were found by the Singapore High Court to have maliciously defamed Senior Minister K Shanmugam and Minister Tan See Leng in a December 12, 2024 article alleging secretive property deals involving the two ministers [1, 2, 3, 4].

The article, headlined "Singapore mansion deals are increasingly shrouded in secrecy," falsely suggested shady transactions, including Shanmugam’s 2023 sale of a home for S$88 million and Tan’s non-caveated purchase of a bungalow for nearly S$27.3 million [2, 3, 4]. The court judged these claims malicious and unjustified. Justice Audrey Lim said, "I find there was malice on the defendants’ part. [Malice] means any ill-will, spite or some wrong or improper motive" [2].

On July 14, 2026, the High Court ordered Bloomberg and Low to pay S$230,000 each in damages to the two ministers [1, 2, 3, 4]. The court also ordered payment for costs, with sources differing on the amount—some citing S$423,000 covering costs and disbursements, others reporting S$290,000 for legal costs specifically [1, 2, 3, 4].

Bloomberg had removed the paywall for the defamatory article after publication, which the court saw as evidence of malice intended to spread the false claims more widely [2, 3, 4].

Senior Minister Shanmugam criticized media outlets for spreading falsehoods about public leaders, saying, "Some media organisations adopt a superior attitude, believing themselves entitled to maliciously malign public leaders in non-Western societies and purvey falsehoods with impunity. They use their money and size to get away with this. They can’t do that in Singapore" [1]. He added Bloomberg’s refusal to appeal "reveals its true assessment of the legal merits" and that it "has chosen to leave the court’s findings of malice, falsehoods and wrongful conduct unchallenged, on the record" [1].

Minister Tan See Leng stated that with the appeal deadline passed on August 27, 2026, "the matter is closed" and emphasized the ministers’ focus remains on "our commitment and work for Singapore and Singaporeans" [1].

The appeal deadline expired August 27 without Bloomberg filing, effectively accepting the court’s ruling [1, 2, 3, 4]. Senior Minister Shanmugam confirmed this publicly on August 29 [1, 2, 3, 4].