13 Kiais in West Java Deceived by MBG Project, Built Kitchens but Business Fails, Here's the Chronology

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BANDUNG – As many as 13 kiais in the Kuningan Regency and Cirebon Regency areas are suspected of becoming victims of a business scam involving the Unit for the Provision of Nutritious Free Meal Services (SPPG) MBG. Each kiai suffered losses amounting to hundreds of millions of rupiah. Afriendi Sikumbang, coordinator of the legal team for the MBG kitchen victims from Koperasi DSN Pesantren as well as LBH Gerakan Pemuda Ansor, stated that the alleged fraud case affecting the kiais began when 13 pesantrens approached the LBH to report an individual with the initials YH from Koperasi DSN. YH is suspected of committing criminal fraud. They were enticed with the prospect of becoming partners of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) to establish SPPG MBG. “So Koperasi DSN approached these kiais, stating that they were official partners of BGN, then conveyed the enticements of the MBG programme, promises—well, as everyone knows, the MBG kitchen programme is very lucrative from a business perspective,” he said when contacted on Wednesday (13/5/2026). He mentioned that the kiais immediately trusted YH because the individual had previously collaborated with other kiais. Subsequently, the kiais were asked to submit applications for their pesantrens to become BGN partners through Koperasi DSN. “So they stated that the cooperative has quotas or slots, perhaps thousands of points across Indonesia. Well, after these kiais, as leaders of the pesantrens, prepared proposals,” he said. After the proposals were made, he said the kiais visited the Koperasi DSN office in Cianjur to submit them. It is known that the Koperasi DSN office is also located in Duren Sawit, East Jakarta. “I see that the addresses of these places vary; from several contracts I’ve seen. So they named it a cooperation agreement, mutawalah, musharakah, mutanaqisah. The agreements were in Arabic because they were made with the kiais in Arabic,” he said.