Anita Kolopaking’s Lawsuits

One of the most awaited trials of 2020 is the case of alleged forgery and obstruction of justice related to efforts in assisting Joko Tjandra escape punishment. In the case of forgery, we all know that Joko was indicted with his then legal counsel Anita Kolopaking and a police general Prasetijo Utomo. Anita was found guilty and sentenced to two years and six months imprisonment and we haven’t heard of her name since the until several weeks ago when Anita filed a lawsuit against former Chief of the Supreme Audit Agency, Hadi Poernomo. Recently, we learned that Anita’s lawfirm filed a different lawsuit against one Martin Tanudjaja Saputra.

Joko Soegiarto Tjandra (colloquially known as Joker) shocked the nation in mid-2020 when he was reportedly back in the country after the Attorney General, Sanitiar Burhanuddin, conveyed findings to the House of Representatives. This information was quickly (in a defensive manner) denied by the Ministry of Law and Human Rights. Only a few weeks after the AGO provided this information it was finally discovered that it was true that Joko Tjandra had returned to Indonesia. The entire nation was surprised upon learning this and soon after more problems were revealed.

POLRI acted quickly and conducted an internal investigation. Three generals were removed from their position soon after the case was uncovered. As per July 2020, the POLRI announced that Joko’s legal counsel, one Anita Kolopaking, had been named a suspect. After that, the POLRI also named its general as a suspect. The general in question is Brigadier General (Pol) Prasetijo Utomo. Prasetijo is the first general to be removed from his position because he was caught helping Joko. However, it turned out that the help Prasetijo provided was more than we imagined. Initially, the public only knew that Prasetijo had given Joko (mentioned as Joko Soegiarto) a travel permit and Health Certificate (for COVID-19), stating that Joko was a consultant at the POLRI’s Criminal Investigation Unit (Bareskrim). In reality, Joko is not a police consultant. More than that, the public was shocked by the new suspicion that Prasetijo gave two travel permits. Because of his many antics, Prasetijo was named a suspect along with Anita.

After a case reconstruction on Aug. 14, 2020, POLRI announced three clusters of interrelated cases in two cases: forgery and corruption. POLRI then announced three suspects regarding the case of forgery. Apart from Anita and Prasetijo, the new suspect is none other than Joko Tjandra. Anita denied the public allegation on being mastermind in the case, however, the indictment pointed Anita as one of the parties who actively trying to help Joko. We didn’t expect much from the proceedings especially because it was done and completed in a very short time. A lot of questions goes unanswered. Anita was eventually found guilty and sentenced to two years and six months in prison.

Since then, we haven’t heard anything about Anita, until the last week of October 2022. Anita filed a lawsuit against Hadi Poernomo, the former chief of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK). The lawsuit was registered as Case No. 953/Pdt.G/2022/PN JKT.SEL.

Apparently, Anita was Hadi Poernomo’s legal counsel after Hadi was made a graft suspect by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in April 2015. In providing the legal assistance, Hadi was said to have promised fees amounted to Rp10 billion to be paid through his in-laws. The two parties then agreed.

In her explanation to several national media outlets, Anita stated that she provided legal opinion and input for the draft of pre-trial lawsuit which challenged the KPK decision to name Hadi a suspect. This pre-trial lawsuit is a historic one because Hadi Poernomo won. On May 26, 2016, the sole presiding judge, Judge Haswandi overturned the KPK’s decision to make Hadi Poernomo a suspect. The decision at that time was also historic because it was stated that Hadi Poernomo won without legal assistance, therefore Anita’s lawsuit was quite surprising to us. FYI, Haswandi is now a Supreme Court justice.

Anita then explained that even though Hadi Poernomo won the pre-trial, he broke his promise to pay fees for the legal services provided by Anita. After seven years, Anita’s subpoena was also ignored, this is why Anita decided to file a lawsuit.

Based on this chronology, in her lawsuit Anita asked the court to state that the legal services agreement between her and Hadi Poernomo was a valid and binding agreement for the parties. Anita then asked the court to declare that Hadi Poernomo had defaulted and had to pay compensation in the form of a principal debt of Rp10 billion plus interest of 6 percent per year or Rp600 million per year, calculated since Hadi Poernomo was deemed negligent in fulfilling his obligations.

The court has started the mediation process on Nov. 8, 2022.

On the same day when the mediation started, Anita through her lawfirm Anita Kolopaking & Partners filed a new lawsuit, this time against Martin Tanudjaja Saputra. The lawsuit was registered as Case No. 1029/Pdt.G/2022/PN JKT.SEL. Listed as co-defendants are Melissa Tanudjaja Saputra, Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI) KC Fatmawati I, and Bank Central Asia (BCA) Tebet Branch.

The source of dispute is the Offering Letter for Legal Services No. 0131/AKP/X/2014 dated Oct. 31, 2014. In the lawsuit, the firm asked the court to state that the offering letter is a valid agreement between the plaintiff and the defendant and is binding as law for the parties. The firm further asked the court to state that the defendant had defaulted so that he had to pay compensation in the form of a principal debt of Rp5 billion plus interest of 6 percent or Rp300 million per year which was calculated from the time the defendant failed to fulfill his obligations, namely since the firm sent a letter on Aug. 25, 2022.

Apart from that, the firm also asked the court to confiscate accounts, time deposits and land and buildings in the name of the late Rudy Tanudjaja Saputra. The firm asked the co-defendants to surrender the rights to the said deposits and accounts of 75 percent.

The court didn’t provide more information, but Martin Tanudjaja online profile mentions him as executive director of Fastfood Indonesia. Martin’s name wasn’t mention in the latest financial statement of PT Fast Food Indonesia Tbk (FAST) however, Martin is reportedly a shareholder in PT Gelael Pratama, founder of FAST. The majority shareholder of PT Gelael Pratama is Elisabeth Gelael, wife of Dick Gelael (67.5 percent of shares). Elisabeth is now the commissioner of FAST. Other shareholders are the late Rudy Tanudjaja Saputra (4.75 percent of shares) and Martin Tanudjaja Saputra (17.5 percent of shares). Meanwhile Ricardo Gelael owns 10.25 percent of the shares. Ricardo is the president director of FAST.

According to the latest financial statement, PT Gelael Pratama owns 39.84 percent of FAST shares, PT Indoritel Makmur Internasional Tbk owns 35.84 percent of shares and the remaining 24.24 percent is owned by the public. There is also 0.8 percent of treasury shares.

By Pradnya Paramitha