Former Wilmar Palm Oil Executive Sentenced to Six Years in Prison in Judge Bribery Case

Former Head of Social Licence at Wilmar Group, M Syafei, has been sentenced to six years in prison in connection with allegations of bribery of a judge and money laundering offences.

The panel of judges at the Jakarta Corruption Court (Tipikor) ruled that Syafei has been proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt of assisting in joint bribery as per the first charge. However, Syafei was acquitted of money laundering charges as outlined in the second charge. In addition to the prison sentence, Syafei was ordered to pay a fine of Rp300 million, with an alternative of 100 days imprisonment in default of payment.

“The court hereby sentences the defendant to six years imprisonment and a fine of Rp300 million to be paid within one month, which may be extended for up to a further month following the final judgment,” stated chief judge Efendi when reading the verdict at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Tuesday, 3 March.

In reaching its verdict, the bench considered various aggravating and mitigating factors. The aggravating factors included the defendant’s actions undermining the state’s commitment to combating corruption, abuse of power and nepotism. Furthermore, the defendant’s conduct occurred in connection with a corporate case already under investigation for corporate corruption.

The mitigating factors included the defendant’s lack of any prior criminal convictions and the fact that the initiative for the bribery did not originate from the defendant.

The sentence is significantly lighter than the public prosecutor’s demand of 15 years imprisonment and a fine of Rp600 million, with an alternative of 150 days imprisonment, plus compensation of Rp9.3 billion with an alternative of five years imprisonment.

The alleged bribery offences were committed by Syafei together with advocates Marcella Santoso, Ariyanto Bakri and Junaedi Saibih. These three advocates also had their verdicts delivered on the same day.