Finance Minister Purbaya Stunned as Fugitive Eddy Tansil's Assets Recovered After Decades

Jakarta - Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa has admitted he was stunned by the Attorney General’s Office’s success in recovering state losses from old corruption cases, including that of convicted corruptor Eddy Tansil, who escaped from prison around 30 years ago, precisely in 1996. According to Purbaya, the Attorney General’s Office’s ability to locate and secure assets linked to a case that has lasted for decades is an achievement worthy of appreciation. He assessed that the effort shows the state has not stopped pursuing its rights despite the passage of time. “What surprised me was the Eddy Tansil case, which has long been in the public memory; the money could still be recovered. I think that is an extraordinary achievement, because it has been decades,” Purbaya said during a speech at a symbolic handover of Non-Tax State Revenue from asset recovery at the Attorney General’s Asset Recovery Agency office in South Jakarta. Purbaya stressed that tracing assets in a decades-old corruption case is not an easy task. Therefore, the success of the Asset Recovery Agency in rediscovering assets belonging to Eddy Tansil is proof of law enforcement’s seriousness in returning state losses. The Attorney General’s Office handed over Non-Tax State Revenue worth approximately Rp1.029 trillion to the Ministry of Finance. Of that amount, around Rp51.6 billion came from asset tracing in Eddy Tansil’s name. The total comprised Rp978.19 billion from the BPA Fair 2026 auction and Rp51.68 billion from Eddy Tansil’s asset recovery. Additionally, the agency handed over auction proceeds worth Rp19.12 billion to be returned to victims. Eddy Tansil’s case is one of the biggest corruption scandals of the New Order era. Before his legal troubles, Eddy was known as a successful entrepreneur who built his business from the ground up. In the 1970s, he started with buying and selling becaks and assembling motorcycles. Over time, his business expanded into various sectors, from alcoholic beverages to petrochemicals. His name soared after he established PT Golden Key Group. Through this company, Eddy developed various large-scale business projects requiring massive funding. To finance the expansion, he applied for a loan from Bank Pembangunan Indonesia (Bapindo). The application was approved, and the credit received reached Rp1.3 trillion, becoming one of the largest loans ever granted by a state-owned bank at the time. However, shortly after the credit was disbursed, suspicions arose. Law enforcement found indications that the funds were not used according to the loan’s original purpose. An investigation was conducted until the Attorney General’s Office detained Eddy Tansil on 17 February 1994. During the trial, it was revealed that the credit funds were not used properly. The judge declared Eddy proven to have misused state credit for personal gain. The loan funds were used to buy houses, land, and vehicles, and were stored in bank accounts, rather than for business development. On 15 August 1994, the Central Jakarta District Court sentenced Eddy Tansil to 17 years in prison and ordered him to pay Rp500 billion in restitution. The sentence was later increased to 20 years by the High Court and the Supreme Court. Although convicted, Eddy did not serve his full sentence. In May 1996, Eddy escaped from Cipinang Prison in East Jakarta. At the time, Eddy was scheduled for a medical examination at Harapan Kita Hospital, an activity approved by the prison authorities. However, he used the opportunity to flee. The then-Minister of Justice, Oetojo Oesman, revealed that Eddy had altered his appearance by curling his hair and growing a beard to disguise his identity before escaping. The incident prompted a massive manhunt by the government. Interpol was involved, and search assistance was requested from 179 countries. The government even hired private detectives to aid the tracking. Despite reports suggesting Eddy was in Singapore and China, all pursuit efforts never succeeded in bringing him back to Indonesia. Even when the Attorney General’s Office re-investigated his whereabouts in China in 2011, the result remained nil.