Indonesia’s world of shipping business has been going through a difficult year because the only professional association for the shipowners, i.e.,the Indonesian National Shipowners’ Association, is now torn into two different leaderships. The Indonesian National Shipowners’ Association (INSA) was recognized by Ministry of Law and Human Rights under the leadership of Johnson W. Sutjipto, while the Union of Indonesian National Commerce Shipping Entrepreneurs (PPPNNI – P3N2I) was recognized under the leadership of Carmelita Hartoto Hardikusumo. Because of this duality, on March 2016, Carmelita and Budhi Halim filed a lawsuit to demand the revocation of the decree that validates Sutjipto’s leadership. The lawsuit was accepted, but apparently the Ministry decided to publish two other decrees in favor of Sutjipto. In mid-2017, Carmelita once again filed a lawsuit, but this time against the Minister of Law and Human Rights.

Last year, Edy Nasution—a former Registrar of the Central Jakarta District Court—was caught receiving bribes from an employee of PT Artha Pratama Anugerah (APP, a subsidiary of Lippo Group) by the name of Doddy Arianto Supeno. The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) subsequently developed the investigation and led them to the Lippo Group. Edy and Doddy were convicted by the end of 2016. At the same time, the KPK named Eddy Sindoro as the new suspect in the case. To this day, however, there is no news on the progress of the investigation. The KPK is also reluctant to clarify Eddy’s whereabouts. What make things even more interesting is that on the second week of June 2017, one of the companies at the heart of the case, i.e., AcrossAsia Limited (previously HKEX:8061) was delisted from the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited.

PT Bima Multi Finance, the subsidiary of PT Cipta Citra International entered their period of Suspension of Debts Payment (PKPU) on May 19, 2017. The Company filed voluntarily, acknowledging that it was having financial difficulties. The meeting of creditors have been held several times and the Company had presented their peace proposal, but the negotiation continues. The next meeting of creditors is scheduled to be held on July 7, 2017. The creditors will vote on the proposal, and if accepted, the Company will be able to restructure its debts.

Last year, around the time the Indonesian Government launched the Tax Amnesty Law, the Singapore High Court published their decision on a family dispute regarding the management of an offshore trust. The family dispute between Kuntjoro Wibawa, his mother Harianty Wibawa, and his siblings was rejected because the judge believed the plaintiff consented to the trust at the time of establishment. Last week, the Singapore High Court once again published their decision on a dispute between Kuntjoro Wibawa and his former legal counsel Tommy Choo, Mark Go & Partners. This long-standing dispute is also related to taxation issue.

The trial of the former Head of Initial Evidence Sub-Directorate at the Law Enforcement Directorate in the Directorate General of Taxation Handang Soekarno, who was caught for receiving bribes from the Managing Director of a subsidiary of Lulu Group International PT EK Prima Ekspor (EKP), will soon come to an end. Previously, interesting evidence were made public through the trial, and Handang was not holding back. Many thought that the prosecutors would thus go easy on Handang. But on June 21, 2017, the prosecutors read their demands for Handang and did not show any lenience.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) conducted Sting Operations (OTT) in Bengkulu three weeks ago and arrested an active prosecutor. On June 20, 2017, however, the KPK again conducted an OTT in Bengkulu. This time, among the individuals arrested, there was the Governor of Bengkulu Ridwan Mukti and his wife. Ridwan, who kept an image as an anti-corruption activist, is the third Governor of Bengkulu involved in graft cases.

United Overseas Bank Ltd (UOB – SGX: U11) filed a lawsuit against Lippo Marina Collection Pte Ltd (Lippo), a subsidiary of Lippo Limited (HKEX: 226), and seven other parties on November 2014 for allegedly misleading the bank into granting inflated housing loans for 38 condo units at Marina Collection (MC) in Sentosa Island. The bank had since dropped five defendants from its suit, but it maintains three main defendants, i.e., Lippo and two property agents named Rick Goh and Aurellia Ho. Over the past two years, the parties had been fighting over an affidavit made by Rick Goh, which supposedly benefitted UOB. Lippo had repeatedly asked for the said affidavit but UOB said disclosure was not possible due to a litigation privilege. After several trials, on June 16, 2017, the Singapore High Court decided that the disputed affidavit did not need to be disclosed and therefore Lippo’s appeal should be dismissed.