Back in March 2023, businessman Surya Darmadi, owner of Duta Palma Group, was declared guilty of corruption and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Surya attempted to appeal but to no avail. Separately, two Supreme Court staff who were involved in the allegation of case brokers that rocked the Supreme Court finally found guilty.

General Maraden Panggabean was the minister of Defense and Security who was concurrently commander of the Indonesian Armed Forces (Panglima ABRI) in the mid-1970s. His name is better known from the Malari incident, the Fifteenth January Catastrophe (Malapetaka Limabelas Januari), which occurred on Jan. 15, 1974. This incident, in summary, arose as a result of large-scale demonstrations carrying the rejection of foreign investment, investment which was said to have the potential to open loopholes for corruption in the New Order Government. At the same time, there was rivalry among the military Generals, however, Maraden Panggabean managed to finish his career with brilliant achievements because he was close to the Government.

Three months ago we learned that the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had been investigating allegations of corruption and misappropriation of authority committed by civil servants. Along with the revelation, the KPK apparently had named 10 suspects in a case of alleged corruption relating to the provision of remuneration (performance allowance, tunjangan kinerja – tukin) at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (Kementerian ESDM). Recently, we finally learned the names of the suspects and the modi operandi they used in the criminal scheme.

Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has named Muhammad Yusrizki, one executive of Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN Indonesia), a suspect in the corruption scandal at BAKTI Kominfo, an agency handling funds collected from telecommunication companies for public service obligations at ministry of communications and informatics.

In 2022, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) announced that they had commenced investigation into allegations of corruption at the root of the problem which caused the cooking oil shortage and price surcharge. By May of the same year, the AGO had named several suspects, then the President decided to dismiss the Minister of Trade, M Lutfi, after serving for less than two years. Trial of the defendants started soon after and they were found guilty several months later. In the midst of all that, the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) announced that it had escalated the investigation on alleged cartel-like practices in the cooking oil industry into the next phase and officially examined 27 companies in Assembly hearings. The hearings start in October 2022 and recently, the examination stage is finally over. The KPPU decided that the allegation on cartel-like practices cannot be proven, however, seven companies were deemed responsible for the shortage and punished to pay over Rp70 billion in fines. This week, five companies decided to appeal.

President Soeharto’s half-brother, Probosutedjo bin Atmopawiro, was known as a flamboyant businessman, although he is full of controversy. Until the end of his life, the business group he built continued to grow and survive without much attention. In this generation, many people probably don’t know who Probosutedjo is. Unfortunately, after his death in 2018, the family relations that seemed harmonious began to be highlighted. The peak was earlier this year, when the legal counsel of Septanto Probosutedjo, the second child and first son of this family, announced to the public that the Probosutedjo siblings were in dispute. Not long ago, a new lawsuit was registered to the Central Jakarta district court.

At the beginning of this year, a specialist tax advocate, Nurhidayat et al, filed a judicial review of the provisions of Art. 5 paragraph (2) of Law No. 14/2002 concerning the Tax Court to the Constitutional Court. This process coincided with the revelation of the unreasonable wealth scandal of the Head of the General Section at the Directorate General of Taxation at the Ministry of Finance, Rafael Alun Trisambodo. Rafael, as we all know, is the father of Mario Dandy Satriyo, the suspect in the alleged torture case, who was later found to have an unreasonable amount of wealth. Since the case was uncovered, the authority of the Ministry of Finance has been questioned, including how the institution manages the Tax Court. Not long ago, Nurhidayat et al got what they wanted. The Constitutional Court ordered that the management of the Tax Court be carried out under one roof at the Supreme Court no later than December 2026.

PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (ANTM) is on the roll, in a bad way. We know that the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Attorney General's Office (AGO) are still carrying out investigations and inquisitions into alleged corruption cases involving the company and...

Government decision to issue Government Regulation (PP) No. 26/2023 concerning Management of Sedimentation Products in the Sea has generated controversy and rejection from many parties. At the heart of the problem was the existence of an article permitting the export of sea sand to foreign countries when sand export activities had been prohibited through a Decree of the Minister of Industry and Trade in 2003, during President Megawati’s administration. Unfortunately, just like many other problems, the purpose of forming the PP as a whole has been sidelined because of the commotion.

Two defendants who gave bribes in a corruption case that rocked the Supreme Court finally listened to the prosecutors’ demands recently. Prosecutors still believe the two men are guilty and asked the Corruption Court to sentence them to eight years and eight years and six months in prison, respectively.