Attorney General's Office Urged to Trace Other Assets Belonging to Eddy Tansil
Lawyer Tri Adhyaksa Viravibawa has requested the Attorney General’s Office (Kejagung) to finalise the investigation into other assets belonging to Eddy Tansil, the convict in the case involving the embezzlement of state funds amounting to US$430 million, or approximately Rp1.3 trillion.
This push comes after the Attorney General’s Office Asset Recovery Agency (BPA) handed over several assets belonging to the boss of PT Golden Key Group (PT GKG) worth Rp51.6 billion.
Tri stated that he is carrying the mandate of his late father, Rachmat Wangssasenjaya, who was one of the 33 prosecutors involved in the process of seizing and confiscating Eddy Tansil’s assets. He noted that the prosecution team at that time had conducted maximum asset tracing and seizure, with values reportedly exceeding the state’s claims.
“Based on existing evidence, assets handed over to state-owned banks—including Bapindo, BDN, BBD, Bank Exim, and BNI—were sold on 14 July 1997 to PT Banten Java Persada. The total was Rp1,362,244,400 or Rp1.36 trillion,” Tri stated in his remarks on Sunday (21/6).
Tri mentioned that following the handover of those assets, further assets belonging to Eddy Tansil were sold via auction during 2009-2010. Consequently, he argued, the Attorney General’s Office should no longer have any outstanding obligation to pay the replacement funds.
“The sale of assets totalled Rp1.36 trillion. Eddy Tansil’s obligation was Rp900 billion, leaving a difference of Rp400 billion. At the very least, Rp400 billion should have been submitted to the prosecutor’s office to pay the Rp500 billion replacement fund. The remaining Rp100 billion depends on how the remaining assets are sold,” he said.
Furthermore, Tri noted there was an agreement that if assets were sold or transferred, any excess from the sale proceeds must be returned to the state. “Before the handover, the Attorney General and the Head of the Special Crimes Division (Jampidsus) warned that if you sell or transact with a third party, the excess value of that transaction must be submitted to the Attorney General’s Office. The Attorney General’s Office will then deposit it into the state treasury as replacement funds worth Rp500 billion. That is the legal procedure,” he added.
However, Tri noted that to date, his party has not received information regarding the results of the asset sales or the amount of funds returned to the state. “If there are excess sale proceeds, they should be reported to the Attorney General’s Office. So far, there is no clarity. This is what I mean when I say the work of the 33 prosecutors is not yet complete,” he said.
Tri hopes the Attorney General’s Office will reopen a thorough investigation into Eddy Tansil’s assets so that the process of recovering state losses can be finalised. He believes such a step is vital not only to maximise state asset recovery but also to provide certainty regarding the results of the work performed by prosecutors who have been executing asset seizures for decades.
Previously, the Attorney General’s Office Asset Recovery Agency handed over several assets belonging to the boss of PT Golden Key Group, Eddy Tansil, including cash of Rp51.6 billion, 20 plots of land, villas, and factories. “On this occasion, we can also report that the BPA successfully traced assets in the name of convict Eddy Tansil in the form of cash amounting to Rp51,682,537,000 (Rp51.6 billion),” said the Head of the Attorney General’s Office BPA, Kuntadi, on Monday (15/6).
These assets were obtained through intensive negotiations with banks. Kuntadi mentioned that the banks were willing to surrender assets belonging to Eddy Tansil that were previously under their control. In total, the assets saved amounted to Rp82,680,537,548.
For context, Eddy Tansil became a high-profile corruptor who embarrassed Indonesia during the global scrutiny of Corruption, Collusion, and Nepotism (KKN) under the New Order regime of President Soeharto. Eddy Tansil has been “missing” for over 30 years without legal accountability for his crimes.
According to various media reports at the time, in 1991, leveraging his closeness to the then-Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, Sudomo, and Finance Minister JB Sumarlin, Eddy Tansil obtained credit from Bank Pembangunan Indonesia (Bapindo) through PT GKG. He was also alleged to have partnered with Tommy Soeharto. The credit was intended to build a petrochemical plant named PT Hamparan Rejeki, a subsidiary of PT GKG. However, the company was merely a front, and the state loans were diverted into personal pockets.
For his actions, the Central Jakarta District Court sentenced him to 20 years in prison, a fine of Rp30 million, and replacement funds of Rp500 billion for the US$430 million embezzlement. However, on Monday, 6 May 1996, Eddy Tansil managed to escape, causing a national uproar. He is suspected to have fled to Singapore and then to China.