Alleged Safe House Scheme for the Case of Former Jampidsus Febrie Adriansyah, Trisakti Academician Speaks Out
JAKARTA - The case of alleged corruption and money laundering (TPPU) which dragged former Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) Febrie Adriansyah continues to grab public attention. Head of the Center for Criminal Law Studies at the Faculty of Law, Trisakti University, Maria Silvya Wangga, assessed that there were strong allegations of using a safe house scheme to hide assets from crime.
This suspicion was strengthened after the police managed to seize assets with a fantastic value, namely more than IDR 540 billion spread across 12 different locations.
"If this money is legitimate or legal, why not keep it in the bank?" said Maria in a written statement in Jakarta, Wednesday.
Modus Operandi: Safe House, Commingling, and Layering
Maria explained that in the safe house scheme, perpetrators generally use certain locations - such as houses, cafes, and warehouses - to store cash to avoid detection by the banking system and the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK).
Chair of the Criminal Law Study Center, Faculty of Law, Trisakti University, Maria Silvya Wangga, in a public review in Jakarta, Tuesday, July 21, 2026. (ANTARA/Personal Documentation)
From the results of the investigation, investigators seized a number of valuable evidence, including:
Cash Rp7.2 billion: Consists of 16 foreign currencies found at a money changer. Foreign Currency Hundreds of Billions of Rupiah: Singapore dollars and US dollars stored in a hidden safe at Kafe de'CLAN Signature (Jakarta) and a house in Sentul, West Java. Dozens of kilograms of gold bars.The assets are suspected to be related to money laundering from three major cases, namely the management of PT ASABRI investments, alleged corruption at PT Krakatau Steel, and the governance of coal supply for PLTU (2018-2026).
In addition to safe houses, Maria highlighted two other money laundering strategies used:
Strategy Commingling: Mixing criminal assets with legal assets so that wealth is difficult to trace through LHKPN and Income Tax Returns. Layering Practice: Using money changer services to break the transaction trail through foreign exchange and minimize the volume of cash.Sociological Review of Law and Criminal Threats of Officials
Reviewing this case from the Social Exchange Theory by sociologist George Caspar Homans, Maria said there were indications that state officials exchanged integrity, morals, and positions for illegitimate material gains.
To prove it, he encourages the implementation of a limited reversal of the burden of proof mechanism, in which the owner of the asset must prove the origin of his or her unnatural wealth.
Criminal Defense for State Organizers
In terms of regulation, the actions of officials who abuse their authority can be sanctioned to the maximum using the National Criminal Code (KUHP):
Article 58 paragraph (1): Regulate the weighting factor for officials who commit criminal acts by utilizing their positions or authority. Article 59: Regulate the criminal threat for such officials can be increased by one third of the maximum basic sentence.Maria emphasized that the money laundering process is a continuous chain of crime from the original crime (predicate crime), which moves from the placement stage (placement), layering, to integration in order to disguise the origin of funds.