Attorney General's Office Names Customs Official a Suspect in Rare Earth Corruption Case

The Investigation Team of the Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes at the Attorney General’s Office has named three suspects in a case of alleged corruption in the governance of non-metallic mineral mining by PT Putraprima Mineral Mandiri (PT PMM) between 2018 and 2026. The suspects are IS, a representative of PT PMM; GP, Head of the Pangkalpinang Service Unit of PT Sucofindo; and JK, Head of the Type C Customs Service and Supervision Office in Pangkal Pinang.

According to the Head of the Attorney General’s Legal Information Centre, Anang Supriatna, the case began when IS, representing the mining and mineral company PT PMM, requested that GP not conduct comprehensive testing on ilmenite samples. The aim was to ensure that the content of Rare Earth Elements, which are on the list of strategic minerals prohibited from export, would not appear in the laboratory test report, thereby enabling the issuance of export documents.

IS unlawfully asked GP to manipulate the laboratory test results to state that the ilmenite commodity had a grade above 45 per cent so it could be exported, while also requesting that the rare earth element content be omitted from the report. GP, knowing that rare earth elements have very high economic value and are included in the list of strategic minerals banned for export, unlawfully complied with the request by only testing the top portion of the jumbo bag samples.

JK, as the Head of the Type C Customs Service and Supervision Office in Pangkal Pinang, was also found to have unlawfully accommodated the request from IS to facilitate the export of rare earth elements. JK was aware that the goods to be exported by PT PMM contained prohibited rare earth elements based on a laboratory analysis from Tekmira that had been communicated by the Jakarta Customs Laboratory and the central monitoring unit. Nevertheless, JK issued export documents based on the PT Sucofindo surveyor’s report, which had been conditioned by IS to omit the rare earth element content.

The actions of GP and JK allowed PT PMM to illegally export approximately 390 tonnes of material containing rare earth elements, unlawfully benefiting the company. The state financial loss resulting from this case is still being calculated by the Auditor Team. The three suspects have been detained for 20 days at the Salemba Detention Centre branch of the Attorney General’s Office.