Airlangga, Luhut Responds to Pandora Papers Report

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Two Indonesian officials and a number of businessmen are recorded in the report of Pandora Papers. This report contains financial data leaks from 14 agents of shell companies in tax haven countries.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) obtained the data leak measuring nearly 3 terabytes from an anonymous source. Tempo is the only Indonesia’s news media involved in this collaboration project alongside 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries.

Two Indonesian officials recorded in the Pandora Papers are Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto and Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan.

Airlangga reportedly owns two companies named Buckley Development Corporation and Smart Property Holdings Limited. However, he claimed he neither know about the establishment nor the transactions of the companies that are registered in the British Virgin Islands.

Luhut, meanwhile, is reported to attend a board of directors meeting of a company named Petrocapital SA, which is registered in the Republic of Panama. He is recorded to have attended several meetings directly that took place between 2007 to 2010.

A spokesman for Luhut, Jodi Mahardi, confirmed the news that Petrocapital SA was established in the Republic of Panama. According to him, Luhut only served as the executive officer for three years since 2007.

Jodi said the company failed to obtain adequate oil and gas exploration projects under Luhut’s office term. He also rebutted the news that Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan partnered with an Indonesian state-owned oil firm then changed the company's name.

Read: Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan Files Police Report against Haris Azhar

CAESAR AKBAR | MAJALAH TEMPO