IO – Heru Hidayat (“HH”) and Benny Tjokrosaputro (“BTS”), suspects in the PT Asuransi Jiwasraya corruption case, have also been named suspects in the PT Asuransi Sosial Angkatan Bersenjata Republik Indonesia (“Asabri”) corruption case. Six more people were named suspects alongside them. “Yes, we have named eight people as suspects in the case,” said the Head of the General Attorney’s Office’s Legal Information Center, Leonard Ebenezer Simanjuntak, in South Jakarta, Monday (01/02/2021).
HH was named suspect in his position as Director of PT Trada Alam Minera and Director of PT Maxima Integra (“MI”), while BTS was so named in his position as Director of PT Hanson Internasional. They are suspected of arranging shares and mutual fund transactions in Asabri’s portfolio. They performed this arrangement with the help of Lukman Purnomosidi (“LP”), President Director of PT Prima Jaringan. “LP, BTS, and HH entered the shares that they own with manipulated prices into PT Asabri’s portfolio. They also controlled PT Asabri’s transactions and investments based on agreements with Asabri’s own Board of Directors to their personal benefit and Asabri’s detriment,” Leonard said.
Leonard further stated that in 2012 to 2019, Asabri’s President Director, Director of Investment and Finance, and the Head of Investment Division jointly agreed with HH, BTS, and LP to purchase shares belonging to HH, BTS, and LP and exchange these shares with the ones already in Asabri’s portfolio. This purchase and exchange of shares was performed jointly with the manipulation of the prices of the three Directors’ shares. The fraudsters’ shares were made up to seem very high-priced in order to fool people into thinking that the Asabri portfolio had good performance.
“After PT Asabri became the new owner of these fraudulent shares, HH, BTS, and LP controlled the transaction of these shares in collusion with Asabri’s Board of Directors. They made it seem as if these shares are high-valued and liquid, while the transactions were in fact false transactions that only profited HH, BTS, and LP and the crooked Directors, while detrimental to Asabri’s investments and long-term finances,” Leonard said.
Leonard then said that in order to avoid losses to Asabri investment, these shares that were sold lower than the obtainment price were put up for resale by Asabri through underlying mutual funds controlled by MI, which was in turn controlled by HH, BTS, and LP. No Asabri investments in the 2012 to 2019 were not controlled by Asabri itself, but rather by HH, BTS, and LP instead. “The Indonesian National Audit Board (Badan Pemeriksa Keuangan – “BPK”) is currently calculating the State’s losses, and for now the amount is declared to be IDR 23.73 trillion,” he said.
Other than HH, BTS, and LP, the General Attorney’s Office has also named five other suspects in the PT Asabri corruption case: Former President Directors of PT Asabri, Adam R. Damiri (term of office from 2011 to March 2016) and Sonny Widjaja (term of office from March 2016 to July 2020); former Director of Finance of PT Asabri, BE (term of office from October 2008 to June 2014); former Director of PT Asabri, HS (terms of office 2013-2014 and 2015- 2019); and former Head of PT Asabri’s Investment Division, IWS (term of office from July 2012 to January 2017). They and two others were interrogated by investigators on Monday (01/02/2021).
The suspects were arrested on 1 February 2021 and will be detained for 20 days. Adam Damiri and Sonny Widjaja are being held separately in Jambe Tigaraksa Class I Detention Center, Tangerang. BE, HS, IWS, and LP are being detained in Salemba Detention Center, General Attorney’s Office Branch. “BTS and HH are not arrested in this case, as they are already named as convicts in another case,” Leonard said. “BTS and HH have been convicted for their involvement in the Jiwasraya corruption scandal. They were both sentenced to life imprisonment, and their cases are currently being appealed.” (Ekawati)