KPK probes alleged continued extortion at Immigration offices

“After the sting operation, KPK suspects some immigration officials continued accepting illicit payments,” KPK Spokesman Budi Prasetyo said at the commission’s headquarters in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Budi said KPK searched several immigration offices suspected of continuing the alleged extortion.

“During the investigation, KPK conducted searches at several immigration offices suspected of similar practices,” he said.

However, Budi said some immigration offices had stopped the alleged practice and returned money from earlier practices to KPK.

“For example, in Bali, the money seized was allegedly received previously,” he said.

The case began when KPK conducted a sting operation into alleged corruption involving residence permits for foreign nationals.

During the operation, Silmy Karim, then deputy minister of immigration and corrections, surrendered to KPK.

On June 4, 2026, KPK named eight suspects in an alleged extortion case involving foreign nationals’ residence permits from 2022 to 2026.

Besides Silmy, who served as immigration director general from 2023 to 2024, KPK named Saffar Muhammad Godam, acting director general of immigration from 2024 to 2025, as a suspect.

The other six suspects are the head of the West Java immigration regional office, Jaya Saputra; the head of the West Jakarta immigration office, Ronald Arman Abdullah; and the subdirectorate officials Tessar Bayu Setyaji and Bagus Bramantyo.

They also include temporary-residence permit status-change team leader Juniadi Sri Priambudi and residence-permit subdirectorate staff Gusti Benardiansyah.

KPK suspects the defendants gained about Rp145.5 billion (about US$8.2 million) from the alleged extortion scheme between 2022 and 2026.

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Translator: Rio F, Rahmad Nasution