Observer: The Cooking Oil Mafia Case Can Be A Corporate Crime

A legal observer who is also a professor at the University of Jember, Prof. M. Arief Amrullah/Antara

EAST JAVA - University of Jember legal observer Prof. M. Arief Amrullah said the cooking oil mafia case handled by the Attorney General's Office should not only stop at individual officials because it could be a corporate crime, so it must touch the corporation and it is suspected that the case is corruption in the congregation.

"We appreciate the Attorney General's Office investigating the case because it is very important that law enforcement officers take firm action, meaning that the state is present and the state should not lose in this case," he said in Jember Regency, East Java, as reported by Antara, Wednesday, April 20.

The professor of the Faculty of Law at the University of Jember said that the four people who had been named as suspects were certainly not alone in carrying out their actions in the cooking oil mafia game, so they were suspected of involving several parties in the corporation.

"Some officials in the company certainly work on behalf of corporations, not individuals. They certainly receive convenience facilities from government officials and they are mutually beneficial," he said.

According to him, the suspect from the cooking oil company is certainly not free from working relationships in committing crimes that cause a shortage of cooking oil in a number of areas, so they work on behalf of the corporation.

"The corporation where the suspects work should also be investigated because there is a strong suspicion that the crime could be a corporate crime and must be given strict sanctions," he said.

He explained that cooking oil is one of the basic ingredients that are needed by the community and for several weeks when the price was set at IDR 14 thousand per liter, there was a shortage in the community.

The reason is that there is hoarding by producers to sell at high prices, so the act has been included in Article 107 jo. Article 29 paragraph (1) of Law no. 7 of 2014 concerning Trade.

"The public will certainly wait for the seriousness of law enforcement officials in thoroughly investigating the cooking oil mafia case. Otherwise, it will cause a crisis of confidence in law enforcement officers," said the legal expert in the field of corporate crime and money laundering.

The Attorney General's Office has named four people as suspects in a corruption case that causes scarcity and an increase in cooking oil prices in Indonesia, one of which is the Director General of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Trade Indrasari Wisnu Wardhana (IWW).