Over a year ago the Jakarta High Prosecutor’s Office (Kejati Jakarta) issued a warrant for the commencement of inquisition (sprindik) in the procurement of coal for PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) in Muara Enim, Palembang, South Sumatera. The Kejati named two suspects in the case. One of them is Kokos Jiang (previously known as Kokos Leo Lim), the owner of Sugico group. He was involved in a dispute against Reliance Power Netherlands BV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Indian power producer Reliance Power Ltd. Kokos filed a lawsuit against Reliance in June 2019. Three days after that, the Central Jakarta District Court ruled in favor of Kokos and acquitted him of all charges, but the story is not over. Kokos has other legal problem. On August 13, 2019, he was sued by one Chenny Kolondam. The lawsuit is related to a dispute over a rental contract worth less than Rp2 billion, but Chenny is an interesting person.
To refresh our memory (link: http://yosefardi.com/2018/02/07/pln-and-sugico-groups-graft-case/), Kejati stated that the case of alleged corruption occurred in 2011 with alleged State losses reached Rp477 billion. The project that is suspected to be problematic is the procurement of coal for the subsidiary of PLN, i.e., PT PLN Batubara implemented by PT Tansri Madjid Energi (TME). The project is worth Rp1.4 trillion. In the process, TME allegedly failed to implement the project, because the quality and quantity of coal the company provided were not in accordance with the provisions stated in the contract. Too bad, PLN Batubara had already paid for the service.
The payment was made in two stages. The first stage of Rp30 billion was made in 2011, and the balance was settled in 2012. Foreign consulting firms found this deviation. In the end, Rp477 billion could not be accounted for, and therefore, considered a States loss. It was later discovered that the payment from PLN Batubara was made on the basis of “guarantee” in the form of analyst document report attached in the contract made by PT Sucofindo. The Kejati’s investigating team suspects that the payment process was conducted without reference to the principle of decency because it was granted even when the contract agreement was annulled.
Then Assistant for Specific Crimes at the Kejati Prosecutor Sarjono Turin in his statement to the press on February 6, 2018, stated that the sprindik published is still in the general stage, so there are no suspects in the case yet. But we already reported back then that TME is subsidiary of PT Sugico Graha (Sugico Group), which controls some coal-bed-methane (CBM) assets in the country. We also reported that TME secured a significant coal supply contract with state electricity provider company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) to supply 40.67 million tons (link: http://yosefardi.com/2015/10/20/the-east-bontang-block-graft-case/).
Sugico group is affiliated to PT Leo Investments Tbk (ITTG), who once listed one Kokos Leo Lim as their president director. As per August 2017, ITTG published information disclosure at the IDX on the progress of their gold mining cooperation with TME, which was agreed back in 2015. And several national media outlets stated that the owner of TME is a businessman who goes with the initials “KK”. In March 2018, the Kejati announced that they had detained two suspects in the case: Kokos Jiang, who was the president director of TME; and Khairil Wahyuni, the former president director of PLN Batubara. Kokos Leo Lim officially changed his name to Kokos Jiang in mid-2017.
In response to the detention, Khairil questioned the Kejati’s decision by filing a pre-trial lawsuit in April 2018. He argued that the warrant on the establishment of suspect that the Kejati had issued was backdated and should be annulled. The sole presiding judge of the South Jakarta District Court ruled in favor of the Kejati, but nothing happened since then. Rather than seeing trials, odd incidents occurred. Sarjono Turin was transferred to the office of the Solicitor General for Specific Crimes at the Attorney General’s Office. The head of the prosecutors’ team who oversaw the case, one Mia Banulita, was transferred to the Batanghari prosecutors’ office in Jambi based on a decree dated July 5, 2018. The AGO announced that the two suspects were released on the second week of July 2018. The last time the prosecutors mentioned about the case was in August 2018, when they said that the prosecutors needed more time to track the assets of the companies involved in order to restore State losses. But again, nothing happened since then. Suspicion arose.
Apart from the case, also in August 2018, Kokos’ name emerged after Reliance Power Netherlands BV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Indian power producer Reliance Power Ltd, reportedly won an international arbitration award of US$56 million (decided by the Arbitration Tribunal constituted under the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC)) against Prestige Capital Holdings Ltd, a Seychelles based Company and Kokos. The contractual dispute is in relation to issues faced over starting operations in three coal mining concessions in Indonesia that Reliance Power had acquired in 2010. These mining concessions reportedly have total coal resources of around 1.5 billion tonnes of coal with potential to produce up to 30 million tonnes of coal per annum.
But the dispute between Kokos and Reliance continued as Kokos, and several parties including Juul Rumambi and Prestige Capital Holdings Ltd. filed a tort lawsuit through the Central Jakarta District Court against Reliance and several other parties. The lawsuit was registered as Case No. 590/Pdt.G/2018/PN Jkt.Pst. The lawsuit also listed several co-defendants, among others PT Sriwijaya Bintang Tiga Energi (PT Heramba Coal Resources is listed as the majority shareholder).
The petition of the lawsuit noted that the dispute is related to ownership of shares. The plaintiffs demand the court to declare that the defendants had committed a tort, and therefore several agreements must be annulled and declared unlawful. The plaintiffs then ask the court to punish the defendants into paying Rp3.8 trillion in compensation for the damages caused. The trials are ongoing, and the next hearing is scheduled to be held on August 21, 2019.
Still related to Kokos, as mentioned, the Kejati kept their promise and continued their inquisition. Kokos finally faced trial as a graft defendant by the beginning of 2019. The case was registered as Case No. 13/Pid.Sus-TPK/2019/PN Jkt.Pst. Khairil also faced his trial at around the same time. The case was registered as Case No. 14/Pid.Sus-TPK/2019/PN Jkt.Pst.
Despite the problems and ongoing proceedings, Kokos still have the energy to file another lawsuit against Reliance Power Netherlands BV. As you may expect, the lawsuit is still related to the mentioned arbitration award. The lawsuit was registered on June 10, 2019, as Case No. 328/Pdt.G/2019/PN Jkt.Pst. Listed as plaintiffs are Kokos and Prestige Capital. In the petition, the plaintiffs demand the court to declare that the arbitration award cannot be executed before the same court make a decision in the ongoing proceedings of Case No. 590/Pdt.G/2018/PN Jkt.Pst. Furthermore, the plaintiffs also ask the court to annul the arbitration award No. 251 year 2015 and declare that the award has no legal force.
Two days after Kokos filed the lawsuit, the court read their verdict for Khairil. Kairil was declared guilty of corruption and was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment with the obligation to pay a fine of Rp100 million subsidiary 2 months in prison. Oddly, a day after that, the same court decided that the charges thrown against Kokos could not be proven and therefore the court acquitted Kokos. How is that possible? We have no clue. The minutes of the trial has only been recently completed on August 6, 2019, and Khairil filed an appeal.
Earlier this week, on August 13, 2019, Kokos was sued by one Chenny Kolondam. The lawsuit is only related to a dispute over a rental contract worth less than Rp2 billion and registered as Case No. 480/Pdt.G/2019/PN Jkt.Pst. The agreement between Chenny Kolondam and Kokos was made back in 2016, but Chenny herself is an interesting person. Chenny is the widow of one Hengky Samuel Daud, who was convicted in the case of corruption of the procurement of over 200 units of fire trucks in 22 regions across Indonesia.
The incident took place in 2003 when Hengky reportedly succeeded in persuading the then Minister of Home Affairs and a retired Army General the late Hari Sabarno to appoint the companies owned by Hengky, i.e., PT Istana Sarana Raya and PT Satal Nusantara to provide 208 fire truck (from 2003 until 2005). The fire trucks provided must be Tohatsu type V 80 ASM, which can only be specifically provided by Hengky’s company. Upon this decision, then Director General for Regional Autonomy one Oentarto Sindung Mawardi sent a radiogram numbered 27/1496/Otda dated December 13, 2002, which contained orders to a number of regions to carry out the procurement of these fire trucks. Oentarto was also known to have made a series of letters to the Ministry of Finance to exempt import duties and import taxes for 8 fire trucks, and as a result of this conspiracy, the total State losses caused by this case amounted to more than Rp80 billion.
As a reward for their cooperation, Hengky and Chenny were known to give money to the Minister, the Director General, as well as a number of regional heads including former Makassar Mayor Baso Amirudin Maula. Examinations at the KPK have been taking place since 2007 and examinations that initially seemed simple turned into complicated examinations. Because the project, which was thought to be a Government project, was ordered suddenly, several regional heads tried to take advantage of it themselves. Amirudin is one of the regional heads who took the extra mile to help Hengky, including deceiving the DPRD’s approval, in return of almost Rp800 million.
Amirudin was finally named a suspect in 2007 and convicted. At the cassation stage in the Supreme Court in 2008, Amirudin was sentenced to 5 years in prison and was required to pay a fine of Rp200 million subsidiary 6 months in prison and was required to pay compensation of Rp600 million.
Hengky decided to run away after becoming a suspect in 2008, and during that, Chenny was the one who replaced him to give statements in several hearings. It was later found out that Chenny and Hengky were not legally married but only traditionally married even though they agreed to separate their assets. The trial revealed that Chenny had sent money to 24 officials, including Hari Sabarno.
Long story short, Hengky was found and was tried. Hengky was convicted and sentenced to 18 years in prison. Hengky resisted and filed an appeal, but in the middle of the appeal process, Hengky died. Chenny, in her statement in several national media outlets at the time, sort of put the blame on the KPK who she said did not allow Hengky to seek treatment and that’s why Hengky died. Maybe this is why we couldn’t find documents about Hengky in the KPK’s directory while documents regarding other convicts are available.
Oentarto Sindung Mawardi, meanwhile, was convicted and sentenced to 3 years in prison. He was released on parole in 2011. Hari Sabarno was found guilty in 2012 and sentenced to 2 years in prison and required to pay a fine of Rp150 million subsidiary 3 months imprisonment. Oentarto died in 2013, while Hari Sabarno died recently in May 2019.
From the open-source, Chenny is listed director of PT Istana Sarana Raya.
By Pradnya Paramitha
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