Here's how Mirae and Sultan Subang manipulated BEBS shares

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Executive Director of Investigations in the Financial Services Sector at the Financial Services Authority (OJK) Inspector General Daniel Bolly Hyronimus Tifaona explained the developments in the stock manipulation case of PT Berkah Beton Sadaya Tbk (BEBS). The case remains in the investigation phase with two suspects, ASS (Asep Sulaeman Sabanda or Sultan Subang) and MWK. ‘For the individual suspects, ASS and MWK, the case files are in the process of being drafted and will be forwarded to the Prosecutor’s Office after the Eid al-Fitr holiday,’ he told CNBC Indonesia, quoted Saturday (7/3/2026). Daniel noted that investigators found illicit gains arising from a price-manipulation scheme controlled by the suspects’ trading team. Specifically, the gains attributed to ASS have not yet been fully realised and have not successfully exited BEBS shares. ‘However, the exact value is not yet known as it is still under audit. From the outset, ownership of shares by individual or corporate nominees amounted to 98.5% of all IPO shares,’ Daniel stressed. He added that, based on reports to PT Pendataan Efek Indonesia, suspect ASS received fresh funds of Rp 70 billion. Moreover, the trading team formed by ASS used dozens of nominee accounts to conduct buy-sell trades with their own accounts to push the IPO price from Rp 100 to a peak of Rp 7,250. It has also been admitted that the trading team earned substantial personal gains of Rp 25 billion (AF) and Rp 3 billion (AI). However, these assets were forcibly recovered by ASS. ‘At the time BEBS shares reached their all-time high, the circulating BEBS shares (from the IPO alone) were valued at Rp 14.5 trillion, comprising 2 billion IPO shares priced at Rp 7,250. We note an anomaly: there were securities losses due to financing bottlenecks or defaults caused by trading limits by PTMA (Mirae) to ASS and other nominees,’ Daniel explained. ‘Additionally, PT MA provided trading-limit facilities beyond normal, resulting in outstanding customer debts of Rp 600 billion. According to Daniel, these limits enabled ASS to freely inflate BEBS shares. Ultimately, the suspect ASS did not finance trading transactions with billions in trading to PT MA. Meanwhile, PT MA had to finance transactions to PT KPEI; the fake IPO funds amounting to Rp 190 billion, which should have been used in accordance with the prospectus for purposes such as buying land and heavy equipment, were merely routed to pay a bridging loan at Bank V, so the purchase was engineered,’ he concluded. It is also noted that the ultimate beneficiary owner or controller of BEBS, Asep Sulaeman Sabanda, has been named a suspect in BEBS price manipulation. The figure widely known as Sultan Subang is suspected alongside a director of Mirae Asset Sekuritas Indonesia. The alleged market abuse occurred between 2020 and 2022 and is believed to involve Asep as the beneficial owner of PT BEBS and MWK as a former Mirae Investment Banking Director, along with the Mirae corporation, through insider trading, IPO manipulation, and fictitious transactions. The series of transactions is suspected to have caused BEBS’s share price in the regular market to rise significantly, by around 7,250 percent.