Former MDI President Director Sentenced to 5 Years for TaniHub Investment Corruption

The former President Director of PT Metra Digital Investama (MDI), Donald Surjana Wihardja, has been sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of corruption in the management of investment funds in PT Tani Group Indonesia (TaniHub) between 2019 and 2023. Presiding Judge Teddy Windiarto stated that Donald had provided investment to TaniHub based solely on administrative data supplied by the Tani Group, without directly verifying the accuracy of the data or the actual conditions on the ground, resulting in state losses of USD 20 million, equivalent to Rp290.92 billion. “The defendant has been legally and convincingly proven guilty of committing a criminal act of corruption jointly, as charged in the primary indictment by the public prosecutor,” said the presiding judge during the verdict reading at the Corruption Court in Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday. The judge stated that Donald’s actions were carried out jointly with former Vice President of Investment at PT MDI, Aldi Adrian Hartanto, who was sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of Rp250 million, with a subsidiary of 90 days’ imprisonment, in the same trial. In addition to PT MDI, two other officials from the investment company were proven to have committed corruption in the management of investment funds in TaniHub during the same period, causing state losses of USD 5 million, equivalent to Rp73.3 billion. The two defendants, Nicko Widjaja and William Gozali, were sentenced in separate trials to three years and two years in prison respectively, along with fines of Rp350 million subsidiary 110 days and Rp250 million subsidiary 90 days. All four defendants were found guilty of violating Article 603 in conjunction with Article 618 in conjunction with Article 20 letter c of the National Criminal Code, in conjunction with Article 18 paragraph (1) letter b of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption, as amended and supplemented by Law Number 20 of 2001. The sentences handed down were lighter than those demanded by prosecutors, who had sought 12 years’ imprisonment and a Rp1 billion fine for both Donald and Aldi, and 11 years and 9 years respectively for Nicko and William, along with similar fines.