Attorney General's Office Raids Dozens of Locations in Riau and Medan Regarding CPO Export Corruption 2022–2024
The Attorney General’s Office (Kejagung) has continued raids at dozens of locations in Riau and Medan regarding alleged corruption offences involving irregularities in the export of crude palm oil (CPO) and its derivatives between 2022 and 2024.
“Over the past two weeks or so, we have conducted raids at dozens of locations in Riau and Medan,” said Syarief Sulaeman Nahdi, Director of Investigation at the Special Crimes Division of the Deputy Attorney General (Jampidsus), at the Attorney General’s Office building in Jakarta on Monday (2 March).
He stated that from the raids, investigators are in the process of seizing assets belonging to suspects that have been secured. “Among them are several plots of land and also palm oil processing factories (PKS). We are currently conducting asset seizure procedures. There are also heavy equipment, vehicles and other items,” he said.
The raids, he said, are currently still ongoing in Riau and Medan. There, investigators are also examining a number of witnesses. “We are not bringing witnesses here (to the Attorney General’s Office building in Jakarta), but we are examining them there because we are directly raiding the location and we need speed so that many pieces of evidence do not go missing,” he stated.
Previously, investigators at the Special Crimes Division (Jampidsus) of the Attorney General’s Office established 11 suspects in this case, namely:
LHB as Head of Subdivision for Non-Food Plantation Products Industry and Functional Policy Analysis Officer and Senior Expert Adviser at the Directorate of Forest Products Industry, Ministry of Industry.
FJR as Technical Director of Customs at the Directorate General of Customs.
MZ as Head of Extension and Information Services Section at the Pekanbaru Customs Office.
ES as Director of PT SMP, PT SMA, and PT SMS.
ERW as Director of PT BMM.
FLX as President Director of PT AP and Head of Commerce of PT AP.
RND as Director of PT TAJ.
TNY as Director of PT TEO.
VNR as Director of PT SIP.
RBN as Director of PT CKK.
YSR as President Director of PT MAS and Commissioner of PT SBP.
The 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 in conjunction with Article 18 of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning Corruption Offences.
The alleged irregularities involve manipulation of the commodity classification of CPO exports which substantively consist of high-acid-content CPO, deliberately claimed as POME (palm oil mill effluent) or PAO using different HS codes. This classification manipulation was aimed at circumventing government control over CPO exports by the Indonesian Government.
Syarief believes many more bribery allegations could be developed in this case, and court proceedings are expected to reveal new facts.