Indonesia's AGO Uncovers 12-Year Corruption Scandal at PT Antam

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Attorney General's Office (AGO) announced that it is investigating a new corruption case involving the management of gold commodities at state-owned nickel and gold mining firm PT Antam from 2010 to 2022. On Wednesday, May 29, the AGO named six suspects after examining four witnesses.

Kuntadi, Investigation Director of the AGO’s Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus), said that the six suspects were the general managers (GM) of PT Antam's Precious Metal Processing and Refining Business Unit (UBPPLM) for the 2010-2021 period.

Suspects

The six suspects are identified as TK (GM for the 2010-2011 period), DM (GM for the 2011-2012 period), HM (GM for the 2013-2017 period), AH (GM for the 2017-2019 period), MAA (GM for the 2019-2021 period), and ID (GM for the 2021-2022 period). 

“After conducting health checks on the six suspects, four of them were detained for investigation. HN, MA, and ID are probed in Salemba Prison, and TK is probed in Pondok Bambu Prison,” Kuntadi said in a press statement at the AGO’s office on Wednesday evening, May 29.

Meanwhile, Kuntadi said that suspects DM and AH have been serving prison sentences in other cases, which were related to the corruption case at PT Antam.

Chronology

The naming of these six suspects is a new chapter in PT Antam's corruption case of precious metals trading. This case was unveiled when the Jampidsus team conducted a further investigation into the alleged corruption case related to the management of gold commodities in 2010-2022. This was based on the investigation order letter No.: Prin-14/F.2/Fd.2/05/2023 dated May 10, 2023.

After a year-long investigation, the suspects' 12-year bribery scandal involving 109 tons of gold goods was exposed.

Kuntadi explained that the suspects have abused their authority by carrying out illegal activities against manufacturing services that should be in the form of smelting, refining, and printing of precious metals.

The suspects have illegally and without authority affixed the Antam Precious Metal (LM) trademark to privately owned precious metals. They also admitted that their actions were against the law.

“These suspects are aware that the attachment of the LM Antam trademark cannot be done carelessly, but must be preceded by a work contract with a calculation of the costs to be paid because this trademark is the exclusive right of PT Antam,” Kuntadi said.

From 2010 to 2022, 109 tons of precious metals in various sizes were printed and circulated in the market simultaneously with official Antam products. “So this illegally branded precious metal eroded the market for precious metals owned by PT Antam so that the losses have multiplied,” he said.

Sanctions

The six suspects face charges in line with Article 2 (1) and Article 3 in conjunction with Article 18 of the Corruption Crime Law in conjunction with Article 55 (1-1) of the Criminal Code.

Suspect AH has served a prison sentence in the corruption case of the sale of 7 kilograms of gold metal involving a Surabaya crazy rich, Budi Said. In 2018, AH serving as GM of PT Antam agreed with Budi Said to make a deal outside the existing mechanism.

Meanwhile, DM was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison in October 2023 in connection with the corruption case of the metal anode processing cooperation between PT Antam and PT Loco Montrado. He is suspected of making a deal with PT Loco Montrado to exchange metal anodes with high and low gold content that did not comply with the regulations.

RADEN PUTRI | TIM TEMPO

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