KPK Investigates Flag-Borrowing Scheme in Bank BJB Advertising Procurement Case

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has discovered an alleged flag-borrowing (pinjam bendera) scheme linked to advertising procurement at Bank Pembangunan Daerah Jawa Barat dan Banten (Bank BJB).

Investigators have been probing the matter through the examination of two witnesses on Tuesday (24 February). The witnesses were Suyoto and Lavi, both employees of PT BSC Advertising.

“With the witnesses examined today, we delved into the practices of work conditioning at BJB, one of which involved the flag-borrowing scheme,” said KPK spokesperson Budi Prasetyo at the Merah Putih Building in Jakarta on Tuesday (24 February).

Budi was unable to explicitly disclose the parties involved in the conditioning arrangements.

He added that the witnesses examined also provided documents required by investigators.

“The testimony from the witnesses present today certainly helps investigators to subsequently uncover and shed further light on this case,” he said.

The KPK has named five suspects in the case.

They are former Bank BJB president director Yuddy Renaldi; Bank BJB Corporate Secretary Division head Widi Hartoto; controller of agencies Antedja Muliatama and Cakrawala Kreasi Mandiri, Kin Asikin Dulmanan; controller of BSC Advertising and PT Wahana Semesta Bandung Ekspres (WSBE), Suhendrik; and controller of PT Cipta Karya Sukses Bersama (CKSB) and PT Cipta Karya Mandiri Bersama (CKMB), Raden Sophan Jaya Kusuma.

They have been charged under Article 2 paragraph 1 or Article 3 of the Corruption Eradication Act (UU Tipikor).

According to KPK findings, there were allegedly unlawful acts in the procurement of advertising placements across various media outlets, resulting in state losses of up to Rp222 billion.

The KPK has yet to detain the suspects to date.

“We are still completing the process, as every case naturally has its own challenges and complexities,” said Budi, explaining the delay in detaining the suspects.

“We are completing everything so that the case files and evidence collected become even stronger before we transfer them to the prosecution stage,” he concluded.