An immensely shocking incident happened yesterday afternoon during what supposed to be the last hearing in the trial of the default lawsuit filed by Tomy Winata (owner of Artha Graha Group) against several people related to the dispute over the debt-claiming rights (cessie) involving PT Geria Wijaya Prestige (GWP) and several other parties. The Panel of Judges was reading their legal consideration when suddenly Tomy Winata’s legal counsel somehow decided to approach the judges and assaulted them. Two judges were injured and were taken to the hospital immediately. In our opinion, what happened is beyond contempt of court. It was a crime. Apparently, the Central Jakarta District Court thinks so too, that they reportedly filed a police report against the legal counsel. Why would an advocate do such thing?

We learned that the Supreme Court had granted the cassation petition submitted related to the dispute over the ownership of shares of property developer PT Hanson International Tbk (MYRX) between Benny Tjokrosaputro—the founder and president commissioner of MYRX and Goldman Sachs International. With the verdict, Goldman Sachs is supposed to be “free”, but the Supreme Court has not published the copy of the verdict yet.

Recently the Jakarta High Court announced their decision on the appeal petition submitted by the prosecutors of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) against the verdict given by the Corruption Court at the Central Jakarta District Court for the former Minister of Social Affairs Idrus Marham. Unfortunately for Idrus, the Panel of Appeal decided to aggravate his punishment. Separately, the KPK prosecutors read their demands for the bribers in the case of bribery involving Romahurmuziy (Rommy), the chairman of the United Development Party (PPP).

Back in October 2017, the Directorate of Corruption at the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Unit (Bareskrim Polri) announced that they are investigating corruption allegation related to the process of credit facilities issuance from PT Bank BJB Syariah (BJBS), subsidiary of PT Bank Pembangunan Daerah Jawa Barat & Banten Tbk (Bank BJB – BJBR), to PT Hastuka Sarana Karya (HSK). BJBS, supposedly doing business through Islamic ways, is just one example of how those claiming themselves religious have been using Allah’s name to steal. These people actually do not afraid of hell (which they preached against those voting for a non-Moslem leader). Our prisons shall be made in the image of a hell to scare them.

On July 12, 2019, the Central Jakarta District Court registered a default lawsuit filed by PT Adhi Karya (Persero) Tbk (ADHI), state-owned EPC firm, against PT SKS Listrik Kalimantan. What’s interesting is that Adhi Karya demanded SKS Listrik to pay compensation amounted to over Rp19 billion. What happened?

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) named the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives one Taufik Kurniawan (PAN) a graft suspect for his alleged involvement in the case of corruption that has also brought down the Regent of Kebumen one Yahya Fuad back in the end of 2018. His trial began in March 2019 and revealed that Taufik allegedly received grafts not only from the Regent of Kebumen. After over three months of trial, the Panel of Judges finally declared Taufik guilty and sentenced him to 6 years imprisonment. Even though Taufik, senior politician from PAN, a political party led by opposition figure Amien Rais, is now a graft convict, it is very likely that he would still receive benefits from his position as deputy speaker of the House of the Representatives. Why continue wasting the State funds to pay someone who had stolen so much from the people?

This is one of casualties from weak crude palm oil (CPO) prices in recent years. We know that two subsidiaries of PT Golden Plantation Tbk (GOLL)—used to be subsidiary of the troubled TPS Food (AISA, where global investment firm KKR is an investor)—are tangled by debts and both companies have entered their period of Suspension of Debts Payment (PKPU) in March 2019. Other subsidiaries of the Company, meanwhile, received bankruptcy lawsuits, all filed by the same parties who filed the PKPU lawsuit. Lucky for GOLL all three bankruptcy lawsuit were withdrawn.

It has been over two years since we were exposed to the internal dispute at PT Tiga Pilar Sejahtera Food Tbk (AISA), used to be a major rice miller. Before that, we witnessed how the Food Task Force (Satgas Pangan) raided one of the warehouses belonged to the Company’s subsidiary PT Indoberas Unggul on suspicion of fraud. Since then, officials of the subsidiary were convicted, the internal dispute are heated and developed into allegation of scheme of embezzlement and resulted in each parties claiming ownership of the Company.

By the end of June 2019, the Government issued the long-awaited amendment to the regulation on the Calculation of Taxable Income and Repayment of Income Tax. The Government Regulation (PP) No. 45/2019 revised the PP No. 94/2010, and changes the provisions of two articles and insert some additional articles. Although the changes are small, this change has been awaited by the industrial sector for a long time. The entrepreneurs welcomed the changes in the PP even though there were entrepreneurs who considered the PP is way too late. Nevertheless, the Government believes that the revision dubbed as the “super deductible tax” incentive will increase Indonesia’s competitiveness vis-a-vis neighbouring countries in attractive investments. Really?