Attorney General's Office seizes Rp401 billion from PT CNI in nickel corruption case

Investigators from the Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) at the Attorney General’s Office have seized approximately Rp401 billion from PT Ceria Nugraha Indotama (CNI) in a case of alleged corruption in nickel commodity governance from 2017 to 2020.

Director of Investigation at Jampidsus Saiful Bahri Siregar said the seizure forms part of the investigation into corruption allegedly committed by PT CNI.

Saiful explained that between 2017 and 2019, PT CNI was a nickel mining company in Southeast Sulawesi holding an Operation Production Mining Business Permit. The company did not yet have a Work Plan and Budget, but had already obtained an export recommendation.

PT CNI, together with state officials, allegedly arranged matters so that nickel ore grade test results showed levels below 1.7 percent to meet export requirements, when the actual grade should have been above 1.7 percent.

“PT CNI, using invalid documents, carried out illegal nickel exports, resulting in state financial losses,” he said.

According to calculations by the Finance and Development Supervisory Agency, the state financial loss amounted to approximately Rp401 billion.

On Friday, investigators received the handover of the hundreds of billions of rupiah in state losses from PT CNI. The funds have now been seized and deposited in an Other Government Account at Bank Mandiri.

“The purpose of corruption law enforcement is not solely oriented towards prosecution and punishment, but also towards recovering state finances and improving governance after enforcement action,” he said.

Saiful said investigators are currently constructing the criminal case with complete evidence to determine which parties may be held criminally liable.

“In the near future we will determine which parties can be held criminally liable for these events,” he said.