Bareskrim Reveals the Syndicate of Fraud Purchasing COVID-19 Ventilators, Stacks of Money on Display

JAKARTA - The National Police-Criminal Investigation Unit has uncovered an international network of fraud syndicates related to the purchase of ventilators and COVID-19 monitors.  The fraud was carried out by hijacking the transactions of two companies from Italy, Althea Italy S.p.a, and a Chinese company, Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co., Ltd, which were involved in buying and selling.

Kabareskrim Polri, Komjen Listyo Sigit Prabowo, said that there were three suspects in this case.  They are Saiful Batubara, Rahudin, and Tomi Purwanto. Fraud carried out by hacking the business email. 

"(Fraud) bypassing email communications between Italian companies in this case Althea Italy S.p.a and the Chinese company Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co., Ltd," Listyo told reporters, Monday, September 7.

This fraud case began when the two companies underwent a communication related to a sale and purchase in May 2020. Then, one of the suspects hacked into the communication system. They claimed to be the General Manager (GM) of Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co., Ltd.

"In the middle of the trip, there was someone who claimed to be the GM of the Italian company. They then informed that there had been a change in accounts related to payment problems," said Listyo.

With this change in information, Althea Italy S.p.a believed and paid the bill to a bank account in Indonesia. The total payment is around IDR 58 billion.

"Then there were three transfers to an Indonesian bank account using Bank Mandiri Syariah. The total was approximately 3,762,146 Euros or the equivalent of IDR 58,831,000,000," he said.

The case was revealed after Althea Italy S.p.a became suspicious of the irregularities and then reported it to Interpol Italia. The coordination was carried out with Interpol Indonesia. Until finally, the report was followed up, and the suspects were arrested.

"Bareskrim Polri assisted colleagues from PPATK. We managed to arrest the perpetrators where we arrested them in three places. Namely in Jakarta, in Padang and then in Bogor," said Listyo.

The suspects are subject to Article 378 of the Criminal Code, or Article 263 of the Criminal Code or Article 85 of Law No.3 of 2011 on Fund Transfers, and or Article 45A paragraph (1) in conjunction with Article 28 Paragraph (1) regarding ITE, in conjunction with Article 55 of the Criminal Code, or Article 56 of the Criminal Code and Article  3 and or Article 4 and or Article 5 and or Article 6, and or Article 10 of Law no. 8 of 2010 concerning Prevention and Eradication of the Crime of Money Laundering.