Attorney General Urges Subordinates to Implement Settlement Fines: Faster Recovery of Losses

Attorney General ST Burhanuddin is urging his subordinates to implement the settlement fine (schikking) mechanism for economic criminal acts. He stated that settlement fines are more effective.

“The Prosecutor’s Office, through Article 66 paragraph 1 of the Criminal Procedure Code and Article 35 paragraph 1 letter K of the Prosecutor’s Law, seeks to resolve economic criminal cases through the settlement fine or schikking mechanism, namely halting the case outside the court by paying a fine agreed upon by the Attorney General,” said Burhanuddin when opening the International Seminar of the Indonesian Prosecutors’ Association (Perjasa) at the Hotel Indonesia Kempinski, Central Jakarta, on Tuesday (5/5/2026).

He said that the recovery of state losses could be faster if settlement fines are used. He stated that the fines must be proportional and provide a deterrent effect.

“The effort to recover state economic losses more quickly and efficiently, most importantly, the amount of the fine must be proportional to the losses caused so that it still provides a deterrent effect,” he said.

Burhanuddin gave an example of a case that could cause state losses, such as manipulation of food needs data. According to him, this could lead to chaos in the domestic market.

“Economic crimes that have occurred recently pose a threat to the stability of the national economy. Cases that fall under highly structured policy domains, such as manipulation of statistics on domestic food or commodity needs, which cause policymakers to implement export policies that deplete domestic food or commodity supplies, ultimately killing the domestic market,” he said.

Burhanuddin stated that the death of the domestic market would disrupt society and investment. He said that the issue must be resolved comprehensively.

“This situation causes a decline in interest in agribusiness among the public and investors, the worst being monopolisation of capacity through the construction of wholesale shops and factories that instead absorb imported products and market labour. To address this issue, a comprehensive approach is needed,” he said.

Burhanuddin then gave an example of a state loss case resolved with a settlement fine. He mentioned the 2023 cooking oil smuggling case that was settled using that mechanism.

“The implementation of settlement fines has been carried out, one of which by the Jakarta High Prosecutor’s Office in 2023 against the cooking oil smuggling case related to the state economy. In handling that economic criminal case, the Jakarta High Prosecutor’s Office applied a settlement fine and on that basis halted the investigation of the case because the losses had been recovered,” he said.