Former PT PIS Director Sentenced to 6 Years in Prison for Proven Oil Corruption

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Arief Sukmara, Director of Gas Petrokimia and New Business at PT Pertamina International Shipping (PIS) for the 2024-2025 period, has been sentenced to six years in prison after being found guilty of involvement in an alleged crude oil corruption case. Presiding Judge Adek Nurhadi stated that Arief was proven to have participated in unlawful acts in three stages of crude oil and refinery product governance, resulting in total state financial losses of US$2.73 billion and Rp25.44 trillion in the case. “We declare the defendant Arief Sukmara proven guilty by law and convincingly of committing the criminal act of corruption jointly as charged in the primary indictment of the public prosecutor,” said the Presiding Judge during the verdict reading at the Corruption Court at the Central Jakarta District Court on Tuesday. The Presiding Judge outlined the three stages in question: the procurement of fuel terminal leases by Pertamina, the provision of special assignment fuel compensation (JBKP) RON 90 by the government to PT Pertamina Patra Niaga (PPN) in 2022 and 2023, and the sale of non-subsidised diesel to PT PPN in 2020-2021. It was stated that the acts were carried out jointly with Martin Haendra Nata, Business Development Manager of Trafigura Pte, Ltd for 2019-2021, along with Dwi Sudarsono, Vice President of Crude, Product Trading, and Commercial (CPTC) Integrated Supply Chain (ISC) at PT Pertamina (Persero) for 2019-2020. Additionally, Indra Putra, Business Development Manager of PT Mahameru Kencana Abadi; Hasto Wibowo, Director of Marketing Centre and Trading at Pertamina Patra Niaga for 2020-2021; and Toto Nugroho, Senior Vice President of ISC Pertamina for 2017-2018. The verdicts for all five defendants were also read in the same trial, with prison sentences of four years each for Dwi and Indra, and five years each for Hasto, Toto, and Martin. In addition to imprisonment, all six defendants were collectively fined Rp1 billion each, with the provision that if not paid, it would be substituted (subsider) with 150 days’ imprisonment. In the judges’ considerations, the defendants’ actions included requesting direct appointments to PT Oiltanking Merak (OTM) for fuel terminal lease cooperation, despite it not meeting procurement criteria. For their actions, the defendants were found to have violated Article 2 paragraph (1) of the Corruption Eradication Law as amended by Law No. 20 of 2001 in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph (1) first of the Criminal Code. The verdict was lighter than the prosecutors’ demands. Previously, Martin was demanded 13 years’ imprisonment; Dwi 12 years; Toto, Hasto, and Arief each 10 years; and Indra 6 years. The defendants were also demanded to be imposed fines of Rp1 billion each subsider 190 days’ imprisonment. Furthermore, the defendants were demanded to be imposed additional penalties of restitution payments of Rp5 billion each subsider seven years’ imprisonment each for Toto, Hasto, Dwi, and Martin; five years for Arief; and two years and six months for Indra. Regarding restitution, the Panel of Judges did not impose it on the six defendants because they were proven not to have obtained money from the proceeds of corruption in the three deviant stages. In the alleged crude oil corruption case, the six defendants were proven to have committed corruption jointly with Alfian Nasution, President Director of Pertamina Patra Niaga for 2021-2023, and Hanung Budya Yuktyanta, Director of Marketing and Trading at Pertamina for 2012-2014. Both defendants had been sentenced to six years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rp1 billion subsider 160 days’ imprisonment, in separate trials on the same day.