Prosecutor's Office Names New Suspect In Corruption Case At PT Pegadaian

West Jakarta State Attorney General Dwi Agus Arfianto (center) during a press conference at the West Jakarta State Attorney's Office building, Tuesday (11/1/2022). (ANTARA/Walda)

JAKARTA - West Jakarta District Attorney's investigators have named a new suspect in the alleged corruption case involving PT Pegadaian.

"There is development. In due course we will release additional suspects," said Head of the Jakarta District Attorney's Office Dwi Agus Arfianto in Jakarta, as reported by Antara, Tuesday, January 25.

Arfianto said the suspect is one of 25 witnesses who have been examined by West Jakarta Kejari investigators.

"Witnesses have increased to 25. Witnesses from internal pawnshops, customers are also there," said Arfianto.

However, when asked in more detail regarding the identity of the suspect, Arfianto did not want to mention his name or initials because it was still under investigation.

Previously, the prosecutor's office named an employee managing the West Jakarta Kalideres Branch Service Unit (UPC) with the initials LW as a suspect in a corruption case at PT Pegadaian.

LW was named a suspect because he was proven to have committed a criminal act of corruption with a fictitious pawn mode to take collateral, then hand it over to someone else for a period of two years from 2019 to 2021.

"We have named the suspect in this case on behalf of LW as the head of the West Jakarta branch of the UPC Orchid Kemandoran Kalideres," said Arfianto during a press conference in West Jakarta, Tuesday, January 11.

Agus Afrianto explained, there were several points of violations committed by LW during his tenure at the company. First, LW took the collateral belonging to UPC Anggrek and then pawned it. Second, LW also provides credit with a loan value that exceeds the provisions and does not match the value of the collateral to benefit yourself.

"UPC Anggrek managers were also found to have overestimated the collateral in excess of the applicable provisions and the loan money was not given to eligible customers," said Arfianto.

In addition, the suspect also handed over collateral that had not been paid off to another person and made a pledge without any collateral.

Because of his actions, LW is estimated to have harmed the state in the amount of IDR 5.8 billion rupiah.

For his actions, LW was charged with multi-layered articles, namely Article 2 paragraph 1 in conjunction with Article 18 of Law Number 20 of 2021 concerning amendments to Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption which was amended in Law Number 20 of 2021 concerning amendments to Law Number 31 1999 concerning the Crime of Corruption in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code with the threat of a sentence of up to five years in prison.