Attorney General's Office interrogates PT CNI Board Member regarding nickel corruption case
The investigators of the Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) at the Attorney General’s Office have interrogated a member of the Board of Directors of PT Ceria Nugraha Indotama (CNI) as a witness in the investigation of alleged corruption regarding nickel commodity governance from 2017 to 2020.
“DR, who serves as a Director of PT CNI from 2024 to the present, was interrogated,” stated the Head of the Legal Information Centre of the Attorney General’s Office, Anang Supriatna, in a statement in Jakarta on Tuesday.
In addition, investigators also interrogated DS, a former Director of PT CNI in 2017 and a shareholder of PT CNI; ASS from PT CNI; and S, a staff member at PT CNI.
Anang stated that the interrogation of these witnesses was conducted to strengthen the evidence and complete the case files for the matter in question.
“The investigation process is being carried out professionally, independently, and accountably, while upholding the presumption of innocence and the principle of prudence,” he added.
The Director of Investigation of Jampidsus at the Attorney General’s Office, Saiful Bahri Siregar, stated that between 2017 and 2019, there was a nickel mining company in Southeast Sulawesi holding a Mining Business Licence (IUP) for production operations, namely PT CNI.
According to investigators, the company did not yet possess a Work Plan and Budget (RKAB), yet it had already obtained export recommendations.
Investigators suspect that PT CNI, in collaboration with state officials, manipulated processes to obtain nickel grade test results of less than 1.7 per cent to meet export requirements.
“PT CNI, by using invalid documents, conducted illegal nickel exports, which resulted in state financial losses,” said Saiful.
Based on calculations by the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP), the state financial loss in this case amounts to approximately Rp401.65 billion.
On Friday (28/8), investigators received the handover of funds equivalent to the state losses from PT CNI.