Attorney General Seizes Land and Palm Oil Processing Factories in Alleged 2022 Corruption Case
Indonesia’s Attorney General’s Office (Kejagung) has conducted another series of raids related to an alleged corruption case involving the export of palm oil mill effluent (POME) or crude palm oil (CPO) waste in 2022. Approximately 20 locations were searched in the Medan and Riau regions.
“Over the past two weeks or so, we have conducted searches at dozens of locations in Riau and Medan. Our targets include offices, residences, and also factories—palm oil processing factories,” said Syarief Sulaeman, Director of Investigation at the Attorney General’s Office Special Criminal Investigation Division (Jampidsus), to journalists on Monday (2 March 2026).
During the searches, investigators seized several items of evidence believed to be assets belonging to the private sector suspects who have been arrested.
“These include land—several plots of land—and also PKS, or palm oil processing factories. We are currently carrying out the seizure process. We also found heavy equipment, vehicles, and other items,” explained Syarief.
During the series of raids, investigators also conducted interviews with a number of witnesses on-site.
“We did not bring witnesses here; we examined them there. Because we conducted the searches directly on-site and we needed to move quickly to prevent evidence from going missing, so everything has been examined on-site until now,” he added.
Previously, the Attorney General’s Office had also conducted searches at the offices and residences of the suspects located in Riau and Medan. Investigators seized documents, mobile phones, computers, and six vehicles.
The Palm Oil Export Corruption Case
The Attorney General’s Office has designated 11 individuals as suspects in the case involving the fraudulent export of palm oil mill effluent (POME) in 2022. Three suspects are government officials, whilst the remaining eight are from the private sector.
Syarief Sulaeman Nahdi, Director of Investigation at Jampidsus, revealed that the modus operandi of this case involved commodity export classification fraud, whereby crude palm oil (CPO) with high acid content was misclassified as POME using an HS code intended for residue or solid waste from CPO.
“The purpose of this classification fraud was to evade CPO export controls so that commodity that is essentially CPO could be exported as if it were not CPO and to avoid or lighten the obligations imposed by the state,” said Syarief at a press conference at the Attorney General’s Office building on Tuesday (10 February).
“This occurred because of the formulation and use of a palm oil industry downstream integration map that had not yet been formalised into regulations and which contained commodities and technical specifications not recognised in the international classification system, yet continued to be used as reference by authorities,” he continued.
Syarief explained that another modus operandi involved allowing CPO exports using incorrect classifications to reduce export cost obligations. In this case, investigators also discovered allegations of bribery from the private sector to government officials.
He stated that the estimated loss to state finances resulting from this case reached Rp 14 trillion. At present, the Attorney General’s Office is still calculating the full extent of the losses.
The following is a list of the 11 individuals designated as suspects:
LHB, Sub-Director of Non-Food and Functional Agricultural Products at the Directorate of Forest Products, Ministry of Industry of the Republic of Indonesia, and Senior Expert Policy Analyst and Industry Adviser.
FJR, Technical Director of Customs at the Directorate General of Customs and Excise (DJBC) (currently serving as Head of the Bali, East Nusa Tenggara, and West Nusa Tenggara DJBC Office since 2024).
MZ, Head of Extension and Information Services Section at the Pekanbaru Customs and Excise Office (KPBC).
ES, Director of PT SMP, PT SMA, and PT SMS.
ERW, Director of PT BMM.
FLX, Chief Executive Director of PT AP and Head of Commerce at PT AP.
RND, Director of PT TAJ.
TNY, Director of PT TEO and Shareholder of PT Green Product International.
VNR, Director of PT Surya Inti Primakarya.
RBN, Director of PT CKK.
YSR, Chief Executive Director of PT MAS and Commissioner of PT SBP.