In recent years, we have witnessed various cases of alleged corruption in the Directorate General of Customs and Excise (DJBC) being exposed. These cases always involved officials of the directorate general, but for some reason the public didn’t really pay much attention to the oddities within the institution, until recently. The witch hunt, which began after Rafael Alun’s irrational wealth was investigated by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), has now ensnared the Head of DJBC Office in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Andhi Pramono.

Sukhoi Superjet (SSJ) 100 aircraft with flight number RA36801, conducted a flight demonstration or joy flight organized by PT Trimarga Rekatama in May 2012, but tragedy could not be avoided. The plane crashed into the cliffs of Mount Salak, West Java, killing 45 passengers. At that time, PT Sky Aviation had already ordered 12 SSJ-100 units and even though the public witnessed the horror of the accident, the airlines continued with the agreement. We know how this story ends, Sky Aviation stopped operating just one year after the first SSJ-100 arrived in Indonesia, leaving a lot of debt. Now, nearly 12 years later, Irkut Corporation (who is now the parent company of Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company) filed a default lawsuit against Sky Aviation and one other party.

One of the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) biggest achievements in 2022 was probably the revelation of the cooking oil scandal. However, what started as a shock to the nation, turned out to be less of a surprise in court. The public no longer paid much attention to the trial. The indictments for the defendants were read out in the last week of August 2022, and in just four months, towards the end of December 2022, the demands for the defendants were read out. In January 2023, the defendants were declared guilty but not on the main indictment. Thus, the decisions given are far from what was expected by the AGO. On the appeal stage, the decision remains the same then the AGO decided to file for a cassation to the Supreme Court. Within the last two weeks, the Supreme Court provided heavier punishments for the convicts.

Grace Dewi Riady, familiarly known as Grace Tahir, daughter of Mayapada’s patron, Dato Sri Tahir, and the leader of Mayapada Hospital, was examined as one of the witnesses in the case of alleged money laundering which ensnared a former Echelon III official at the Ministry of Finance, Rafael Alun Trisambodo. The news has attracted public attention. Of course, many parties used this opportunity to sneer at this conglomerate, although it is not known for certain whether Grace is directly related to Rafael.

In mid last year, Fadel Muhammad (a senator from Gorontalo who is also a businessman) was removed from his position as deputy chairman of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR)–the highest legislative body in Indonesia. The reason for his removal, interestingly, was a vote of no-confidence (mosi tidak percaya) that was filed by nearly 100 parties. The MPR does not recognize a no-confidence mechanism. After a month had passed, Fadel fought back and filed a lawsuit to the Central Jakarta District Court, accusing the parties of carrying out unlawful acts and asking for compensation of more than Rp200 billion. Earlier this year, Fadel lost his case in Central Jakarta, but at the same time, Fadel filed a different lawsuit to the Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN Jakarta). Recently, we learned that the PTUN decided in favor of Fadel.

Eight years ago, we witnessed an open dispute between senior announcer Dalton Ichiro Tanonaka, who is also the director of PT Melia Media International (PT MMI), and PT Vivaces Prabu Investments. Dalton allegedly committed fraud and embedded investment funds amounting to US$500,000. In a series of trials up to the Supreme Court, Dalton was defeated. Since then, the name of this company has rarely been heard in the public, until recently. In the last two weeks, there have been two related lawsuits filed against the same party namely PT Nonghyup Korindo Sekuritas Indonesia (previously PT Woori Korindo Securities Indonesia), one of the plaintiffs is Vivaces Investments while the other lawsuit is filed by a familiar name, Parvathi Prem Harjani, son of Harjani Prem Ramchand or Prem Harjani Ramchand otherwise known as Prem Harjani, owner of Vivaces Investments.

With time running out, the Satgas consistently continues to make its ongoing efforts to ensure that the State’s collection rights can be fulfilled. This is done through several actions including confiscating collateral assets and other assets owned by obligors/debtors who have received BLBI funding facilities and have not completed their obligations properly. Last week, the Satgas seized the collateral assets of three obligors. On top of that, the Satgas is also working on billing and within one week, two billing summons were published.

Over two months ago, the Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN), Erick Thohir, visited the Attorney General’s Office (AGP) to report a number of cases of alleged corruption in a number of State-owned companies, including the case that allegedly occurred at PT Graha Telkom Sigma (PT GTS, subsidiary of PT Sigma Cipta Caraka – Sigma). Examination of witnesses was sped up immediately after the report was received. This week, the AGO announced that they had named six suspects in the case. We noted that a few days after the report was submitted, the Central Jakarta District Court registered a lawsuit filed against Erick Thohir and several other parties, the plaintiff was one of the witnesses examined by the AGO and was also a former Sigma executive. The court proceedings are ongoing.

It has been a while since the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) announced their new investigation into the case of alleged corruption in PT Amarta Karya (Persero), a State-owned construction company. This week, the KPK finally named two suspects. Meanwhile, Amarta’s vendors and business partners have been trying to force the company to restructure its debts through the PKPU process. By October 2022, there were three new PKPU lawsuits filed against the company, one of which was granted by the Panel of Judges. The company struggled to settle the dispute with a peace agreement and had until June 2023 to submit their peace proposal.

An advocate, Yasin Djamaluddin, filed a petition for Judicial Review of Law No. 16/2004 concerning the Prosecutors’ Office to the Constitutional Court. Yasin Djamaluddin asked for the prosecutors’ authority on investigation and inquisition of corruption cases to be removed. This lawsuit is interesting, not only because it was filed when the prosecutors’ offices under the lead of the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) was in their prime and exposed various allegations of major corruption cases, but also because Yasin acted as legal counsel for several graft suspects.