Attorney-General's Office Conducts Fresh Raids on Dozens of Locations in CPO Export Fraud Case

Jakarta – The Attorney-General’s Office (Kejagung) has conducted fresh raids on dozens of locations in Riau and Medan in connection with suspected corruption offences involving irregularities in the export of crude palm oil (CPO) and derivative products during 2022-2024.

“Over the past one to two weeks, we have conducted raids at dozens of locations in Riau and Medan,” said Syarief Sulaeman Nahdi, Director of Investigation at the Special Crime Division of the Attorney-General’s Office, at the Attorney-General’s Building in Jakarta on Monday.

He stated that from these raids, investigators are in the process of seizing assets belonging to the suspects that have been secured. “Among these are several plots of land and palm oil processing mills (PKS). We are currently conducting seizure procedures. There are also heavy equipment, vehicles, and other items,” he said.

The raids, he added, are continuing in Riau and Medan. Investigators are also examining a number of witnesses there. “We are not bringing witnesses here to the Attorney-General’s Building, but examining them on-site because we are conducting raids directly and we need to work quickly to prevent evidence from being lost,” he explained.

The eleven suspects are charged with violating Article 603 in conjunction with Article 20 letters (a) or (c) of Law Number 1 of 2023, alternatively Article 3 read together with Article 18 of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning Corruption Offences.

The alleged irregularities involved the manipulation of commodity classification for CPO exports, where high-acid CPO was deliberately misclassified as POME (palm oil mill effluent) or PAO using different Harmonized System (HS) codes. The manipulation was intended to circumvent the Indonesian Government’s CPO export controls.

The suspects include an official from the Ministry of Industry’s Directorate of Forest Products, a Customs Directorate-General official, a Pekanbaru Customs Office section head, and the directors or top executives of nine private companies involved in CPO trading and processing.