Testimony of Koh John's Subordinate on Coded Envelopes for Customs Officials
A subordinate of PT Blueray Cargo owner John Field, also known as Koh John, has testified about coded envelopes intended for officials at the Ministry of Finance’s Customs and Excise Directorate General. In addition to envelopes containing money, John’s subordinate also admitted to paying for karaoke facilities for customs officials.
The trial at the Jakarta Corruption Court began with an opening statement from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutor, who stressed that the officials caught in the sting operation were not merely unlucky but were part of a systemic problem. “Our hope is that the evidence in this case can open the public’s eyes to the public services that have been occurring, so that efforts to reform are not just brief discourse and false hope because of this case, or what the public and netizens call ‘caught by the KPK just because of bad luck’,” said KPK prosecutor M Takdir Suhan. “But rather, it becomes a genuine systemic reform, especially within the Customs and Excise Directorate General of the Republic of Indonesia.”
The defendants in this trial are Rizal, Director of Enforcement and Investigation at Customs and Excise; Sisprian Subiaksono, Head of the Intelligence Sub-Directorate; and Orlando Hamonangan, Head of Customs Intelligence Section I. They are charged with accepting bribes and gratuities totalling Rp 78.8 billion. The money was allegedly provided by John Field, the head of Blueray Cargo Group, along with Dedy Kurniawan Sukolo, the company’s Operational Manager for Port Customs Clearance, and Andri, the Head of the Importation Document Team.
Yohanes Setiawan, John Field’s personal assistant, testified about the process of preparing the money. He stated that the cash was prepared in envelopes and given codes according to a list. “The technical process was that the money was prepared in cash, in envelopes, and given a name code according to the notes,” Yohanes told the court. He explained that the envelopes were collected in a goodie bag and handed over to John Field. Yohanes admitted he had seen the codes written on the envelopes because he had been asked to carry them on several occasions.
Viny Liverie Lie, the HR manager at PT Blueray Cargo, also testified, revealing she prepared 13 envelopes for customs officials between July 2025 and January 2026. She stated that one envelope contained Rp 5 billion and was marked with the code ‘D’. When asked by the judge if the ‘D’ code referred to a customs official, Viny said she did not know, but that John Field had instructed her to write ‘BC’ on the envelopes. She also disclosed other codes used, including ‘Sales 2’ and ‘Biru’.
The court was also shown WhatsApp chat logs between Viny and Yohanes containing the message ‘Wkwk’, which Viny explained was her reaction to learning that customs officials were continuously asking for more money from PT Blueray Cargo.