Raffi Ahmad Addresses Name Being Dragged into Customs Corruption Case

Special Presidential Envoy for Youth Generation Development and Arts Workers, Raffi Ahmad, has revealed the origins of his meeting with the company Blueray Cargo after his name was mentioned in a trial for alleged corruption within the Directorate General of Customs and Excise at the Ministry of Finance. “At that time, yes, I went abroad. I ran a marathon with Ariel, Gading, and Desta. Gading and Desta were out of breath and didn’t join the marathon. The ones who joined the marathon were Ariel and I in Chicago (United States),” said Raffi during a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday. Raffi said he also brought his wife, Nagita Slavina, on the visit to the United States in October 2025. “After finishing in Chicago, because there was still free time, I also went to New York briefly. In New York, I promoted friends who have businesses in New York. There is one called Awang Kitchen, Indo Java,” he said. He mentioned eating at Awang Kitchen, which was adjacent to the Blueray Cargo office. “The shop next door was called Blueray. They called me, ‘Mas Raffi, Mas Ariel, Mas Gading, take a photo with me please’. So we took a photo in front of the shop,” he said. At that time, he said, a Blueray Cargo employee explained that their company could ship any goods from America to Indonesia. According to him, the employee tried to offer Blueray Cargo’s services, but he could not refuse outright. “Well, I couldn’t possibly say, ‘oh no, I don’t want to ship through you’, I couldn’t possibly say that. It was a crowd, I said, ‘oh yes, yes, yes, okay, later if there is a new mobile phone, I’ll send it later’. It was only limited to that. Essentially, I was making small talk,” he said. After that, he admitted there was no communication with anyone from Blueray Cargo. “I don’t have their telephone numbers, never received any shipments, don’t even remember their names, nor did I order anything, I mean, transactionally, there was nothing. It was just small talk,” he stressed.