Defendant In Tax Fraud Case Sued 4 Years In Prison

JAKARTA - The public prosecutor (JPU) Rosman Yusa charged the defendant Joko Sudibyo with a tax payment fraud case with a prison term of 4 years. He was charged with Article 378 of the Criminal Code on fraud.

Hearing this demand, the defendant's attorney, Indra Jaya, said that his party would file a defense (pledoi) next week.

"We will submit a plea to refute what the prosecutor has demanded", he said at the Tanjungkarang Class IA District Court, Bandarlampung, as reported by Antara, Monday, August 23.

Indra Jaya still maintains that his client's case is a civil case. However, he still respects the demands read out by the public prosecutor.

"We still consider this a civil case. We will submit it to the plea on Thursday", said Indra Jaya.

The defendant Joko Sudibyo was on trial for a fraud case with the mode of helping tax payments to his victims.

The case occurred in November 2011 when witness Sugiarto Hadi as Director of PT Sumber Urip Sejati Utama (SUSU) received a summons from the central tax investigator, Jakarta, for the arrears of VAT tax of IDR 34 billion from 2009 to 2011 by PT SUSU.

Regarding the tax problem, Sugiarto then contacted the defendant to ask for help in solving the problem because the defendant was also a fertilizer business partner at PT SUSU.

The defendant then held a meeting in Jakarta. At that time, Rida Handani, the Head of the Sub-Directorate for Tax Audit, met to explain about the tax, and then suggested that the state's losses be refunded according to the tax invoice.

Hearing this explanation, the defendant then asked Sugiarto to prepare a sum of IDR 13.5 billion and a tax fee of IDR 3.5 billion.

The victim then pays the money via bank transfer in stages.

The money was received by the defendant, then paid for the 2009 tax of IDR 1.534.604.870.00 which should have been IDR 4.209.402.552.00.