Evil Strategy of Bank Credit Corruptors in Bengkulu: People's Land Used as Collateral, Threatened with 20 Years in Prison

BENGKULU - The Bengkulu High Prosecutor's Office's Special Crimes Investigation Team (Pidsus) has uncovered a corrupt method for credit facilities at PT Desaria Mining Plantation (DMP). One of the methods involved misusing land with a Land Use Rights (HGU) that actually belonged to residents.

The two suspects in this case are Sartono, a retiree from PT Bank Raya Indonesia Tbk and former deputy head of the agro-business division from 2016 to 2019, and Faris Abdul Rahim, an employee of the bank.

"After further investigation, some of the HGU land used as collateral turned out to still be community-owned land that had never been acquired. In fact, some residents' land was included in the HGU area without compensation," said Candra Kirana, Head of the Bengkulu High Prosecutor's Office Investigation Team, in Bengkulu City, to Antara News Agency on Tuesday, August 19.

The case began in September 2016 when PT DMP applied for a loan from Bank Raya Indonesia, pledging 2,489.6 hectares of HGU land as collateral. The HGU was based on Decree of the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency (ATR/BPN) No. 81 of 2016 issued by the Kaur Regency Land Office.

However, the loan defaulted. The bank then auctioned the collateral through the Bengkulu State Assets and Auction Service Office (KPKNL) from 2021 to July 7, 2025, but no bids were received. The auction value of the oil palm plantation plummeted, even though oil palm plantation assets are usually stable.

Investigators also discovered that the loan funds, which should have been used for the expansion of new plantations and maintenance of productive oil palms, were not used as intended. "The suspects played an active role in this misappropriation, so both were named suspects," said Candra.

Both were charged with multiple articles: Article 2 paragraph (1) in conjunction with Article 18 paragraphs (2) and (3) of Law Number 31 of 1999 in conjunction with Law Number 20 of 2001, in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph (1) point 1 of the Criminal Code, and/or Article 3 in conjunction with Article 18 paragraphs (2) and (3) of the Corruption Eradication Law.

The penalty is a minimum of 4 years and a maximum of 20 years in prison, with a fine ranging from Rp 200 million to Rp 1 billion.