Being Named A Suspect, The AGO Confiscates Mobile Phone Belonging To Young Analyst Of The Directorate General Of Foreign Trade

JAKARTA - The Attorney General's Office has named Tahan Banurea (37), a Young Import Trade Analyst at the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (Dirjen Daglu) of the Ministry of Trade, as a suspect in the alleged corruption case of iron or steel imports in 2016-2021.

"The investigative team named a suspect in the case of importing steel and its derivatives on behalf of the suspect TB. Previously, he served as Head of Eka Industrial Goods, Director General of Daglu, Ministry of Trade, until 2020, now he is a Young Import Trade Analyst at the Ministry of Trade," said Director of Jampidsus Investigations at the Attorney General's Office, Supardi, at the Attorney General's Office Building Roundabout, Jakarta, Thursday 19 May evening.

Supardi said that the Banurea suspect had the status of an active state civil servant (ASN). Previously, he held a structural position at the Ministry of Trade as Head of the Section (Kasi) of Various Industrial Goods at the Director-General of Daglu.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Legal Information Center (Kapuspenkum) of the Attorney General's Office, Ketut Sumedana, in his statement said that the suspect's role in this case, namely while serving as the Head of the TU Sub-Division at the Import Directorate of the Director-General of Daglu, Ministry of Trade (2017-2018) carried out personnel affairs, financial administration, correspondence, archives, documents, and household directorate.

He also registers incoming and outgoing letters from the Directorate of Imports including the issuance of an import approval exit letter number (PI) and an explanation letter (Sujel) for the 2017 period.

"The suspect received an amount of IDR 50 million from Taufiq in exchange for managing Sujel," said Ketut as quoted by Antara.

While serving as Head of Multi-Industrial Goods at the Import Directorate General of Daglu, Ministry of Trade for the 2018-2020 period, the suspect Banurea played a role in processing the draft approval for the import of steel, alloy steel, and their derivatives submitted by business actors/importers.

After the disposition of the Head of Sub-Directorate for Various Industrial Goods and Industrial Raw Materials, then Banurea as Head of Section checks the incoming application and prepares a draft answer.

The Head of Section gives initials to the Sujel draft and checks in stages until the Director is submitted to the Director-General of Daglu for approval/signature, then sent to business actors/importers.

The suspect was once invited by the Head of Sub-Directorate of Various Industrial Goods named Moh A to type the Sujel concept which was delivered directly/orally by the Director-General of Daglu Indrasari Wisnu Wardhana (suspect of CPO export corruption) regarding the explanation of the release of goods.

"The suspect knows and has met with BHL because he was introduced by the late Chandra at the Lobby of the Ministry of Trade in 2018," said Ketut.

Banurea was named a suspect based on the Suspect Determination Letter Number: TAP – 23/F.2/Fd.2/05/2022 on 19 May 2022. Then the suspect was detained at the Salemba Rutan, the South Jakarta District Attorney's Office.

Investigators determined the status of a suspect against Banurea detention with Article 2 paragraph (1) in conjunction with Article 18 of Law no. 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption as amended and supplemented by Law no. 20 of 2001 concerning Amendments to Law no. 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption Crimes Jo. Article 55 paragraph (1) 1st KUHP, Subsidiary Article 3 Jo. Article 18 of Law no. 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption as amended and supplemented by Law no. 20 of 2001 concerning Amendments to Law no. 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption Crimes Jo. Article 55 paragraph (1) 1 of the Criminal Code.

Or secondly, Article 5 paragraph (2) of Law no. 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption as amended and supplemented by Law no. 20 of 2001 concerning Amendments to Law no. 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption Crimes or Third Article 11 of Law no. 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption as amended and supplemented by Law no. 20 of 2001 concerning Amendments to Law no. 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption Crimes.

There are six companies that import iron or steel, guide steel, and their derivative products using an explanation letter (Sujel) or import agreements without PI and LS issued by the Directorate of Imports of the Ministry of Trade.

The explanation letter was issued on the basis of an importer's request with the reason that it was used in the context of procuring construction materials for road and bridge construction projects on the pretext of having a cooperation agreement with four SOEs.

The four SOEs are PT Waskita Karya, PT Wijaya Karya, PT Nindya Karya and PT Pertamina Gas (Pertagas).

"After clarification, the four SOEs apparently never cooperated in procuring project materials, either in the form of iron or steel, with the six importers," said Ketut, last Wednesday (23/3).

It is suspected that the six importers also imported alloy steel using explanation letter I on May 26, 2020, with the excuse that it was for the purposes of road and bridge construction projects, whereas in reality the road and bridge projects in question had been completed in 2018.

In this case, investigators conducted searches and confiscations on Tuesday (22/3) at five locations in Jakarta, including the Data Center at the Data Center and Information System (PDSI), the Secretariat General of the Indonesian Ministry of Trade. At that location, electronic evidence was confiscated, one flashdisk unit containing 27 files of recaps of explanation letters from six importers and a recap of explanation letters in the field of various industrial mining.

The second location at the Directorate of Imports of the Ministry of Trade was confiscated electronic evidence in the form of PCs, laptops, and mobile phones. Then the document of explanation letter and Import Approval (PI) related to the import of steel and iron, as well as IDR 63,350,000 in cash.

Subsequent searches at the PT Intisource Bajaksakti office, having its address at Pluit Village, Penjaringan, North Jakarta, confiscated a BC 2.0 document regarding the Notification of Import of Steel Goods (PIB).

The next location at PT Bangun Era Sejahtera, having its address in Tangerang City, Banten, was confiscated in the form of BC 2.0 documents related to steel PIB, sales invoice documents for 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 including documents registering PT Bangun Era Sejahtera's accounts.

Then a search of the fifth location at PT Perwira Adhitama Sejati which is located in Pluit, North Jakarta, was confiscated in the form of electronic evidence of two external hard drives, BC 2.0 documents related to steel PIB, financial report documents, general import identification numbers documents and industrial business permits.