Samin Tan Allegedly Pays Bribes to KSOP Head to Clear Coal Ships

The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) states that tycoon Samin Tan paid monthly bribes to the Head of the Harbourmaster and Port Authority (KSOP) to clear ships carrying illegal coal. Director of Investigations for the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes, Syarief Sulaeman Nahdi, mentioned that the bribe money was received by Handry Sulfian (HS), the Head of KSOP Rangga Ilung in Central Kalimantan. In return, Syarief said the suspect Handry then issued sailing approval letters for PT MCM and other companies. “However, suspect HS knew that the ship traffic documents for the coal-loaded vessels belonged to PT Asmin Koalindo Tuhup (AKT), which were sold using incorrect documents,” he stated during a press conference on Thursday (23/4). He explained that the monthly money was received directly by Handry from Samin Tan, the Beneficial Owner of PT AKT. Syarief noted that the amount of money given varied from 2022 to 2025. He added that suspect Handry also failed to carry out his duty to check verification result reports from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources as a requirement for issuing sailing orders. “As we know, PT AKT’s mining permit was terminated in 2017. Therefore, during that time, there was no supervision from other places; the only oversight was from KSOP,” he said. In addition, Syarief stated that investigators have also named Bagus Jaya Waedhana, Director of PT AKT, as a suspect. Bagus acted as a coal mining contractor based on a terminated PKP2B since 2017. Bagus, he said, also used documents from several other companies without permits to unlawfully conduct coal mining and exports. Thirdly, suspect Helmi Zaidan Mauludin, General Manager of PT OOWL Indonesia, which operates in maritime and cargo sectors. Based on his role, Helmi and Samin Tan colluded to create Certificate of Analysis (COA) documents for laboratory tests of coal from PT AKT’s mining results. “Suspect HZM was tasked with conducting checks and, as a surveyor, performing verifications and creating reports on mining results,” he explained. He stated that these documents were then submitted as requirements for issuing sailing orders from the Harbourmaster Authority or KSOP and for coal royalty payments. “This allowed the mining output from the terminated PT AKT to pass by creating inaccurate verification reports and listing the origin under other company names,” he concluded. Previously, the AGO named tycoon Samin Tan in a corruption case involving illegal mining management in Central Kalimantan from 2016 to 2025. In this case, Samin Tan, as the beneficial owner or beneficiary of AKT, is alleged to have continued illegal mining and coal sales activities from 2017 to 2025 unlawfully. In fact, PT AKT’s mining activities were revoked through a Termination Letter in the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources’ Decree Number 3714 K/30/MEM/2017. However, these illegal mining activities continued because Samin Tan is suspected of colluding with state officials.