Bribe Of 500 Thousand Dollar Tax Officers, Former Commissioner Of PT Panin Investment Veronika Was Sentenced To 2 Years In Prison

The defendant is the attorney for PT Bank Panin Tbk and Commissioner of Panin Investment Veronika Lindawati while attending the indictment trial at the Corruption Court, Jakarta, Wednesday (9/11/2022). (ANTARA)

Former Commissioner of PT Panin Investment Veronika Lindawati was sentenced to 2 years in prison plus a fine of Rp. 100 million, subsidiary to 3 months in prison for bribing officials from the Directorate General of Taxes worth 500 thousand Singapore dollars to manipulate the tax calculation results belonging to Bank Panin.

Chief Justice Fazhal Hendri in his reading said that the defendant Veronika Lindawati was legally and convincingly proven guilty of committing a criminal act of participating in a criminal act of corruption as charged in the first alternative indictment.

"The defendant was sentenced to 2 years in prison and a fine of Rp. 100 million provided that if the fine was not paid, it must be replaced with imprisonment for 3 months," said Kazhal, quoted by Antara, Wednesday, January 18.

The verdict is lower than the demands of the KPK Public Prosecutor (JPU) who demanded that Veronika be sentenced to 3 years in prison plus a fine of Rp. 200 million, subsidiary to 6 months in prison.

Veronika is considered proven guilty of the first indictment, namely Article 5 paragraph (1) letter a of Law Number 31 of 1999 as amended by Law Number 20 of 2001 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption.

"The thing that incriminates the defendant does not support the government's program in eradicating corruption, the defendant does not admit his actions. The mitigating thing is that the defendant as a housewife is responsible to his family, in the trial the defendant is polite," added the judge.

In this case, Veronika Lindawati while still serving as Commissioner of PT Panin Investment was found guilty of bribing the Director of Audit and Collection (P2) at the Directorate General of Taxes for the 2016-2019 period, Angin Prayitno Aji and a number of his subordinates, Dadan Ramdani as the Head of Sub-Directorate for Tax Audit Cooperation and Support, Wawan Ridwan as the "supervisor" of the examining team, Alfred Simanjuntak as the Head of the Tax Audit Team, Yulmanizar and Febrian as the Tax Audit Team at the Directorate of Audit and Collection of the Directorate General of Taxes wants to manipulate the results of tax calculations on taxpayers belonging to Bank Panin.

Angin Prayitno made a policy to benefit from the examination of taxpayers, asking the "supervisors" of the Tax Audit Team to report the results of the examination as well as a "fee" for structural officials (Directors and Sub-Directorates) as well as for the quota of the Tax Audit Team with a distribution of 50 percent for structural officials consisting of the Director and Head of the Sub-Directorate while 50 percent for the quota for the examination team.

In December 2017, Wawan Ridwan, Alfred Simanjuntak, Yulmanizar and Febrian, analyzed the risk of Bank Panin taxpayers for the 2016 fiscal year with the intention of seeking tax potential from taxpayers as well as seeking personal benefits. From the risk analysis, it was obtained that the 2016 tax potential was IDR 81.653 billion.

On December 13, 2017, the tax audit team formed by Angin conducted an examination and obtained preliminary findings in the form of tax underpayments of Rp. 926.26 billion.

Based on the results of these provisional findings, the Head of the Financial Administration Bureau of Bank Panin, Marlina Gunawan, gave a response, but the tax audit team did not approve of the response.

Marlina then conveyed the findings to Veronika. Then Veronika made her own power of attorney on June 8, 2018 to represent Bank Panin in tax management even though she was not an employee of Bank Panin.

In June 2018, Veronika then met with a tax audit team and requested that Bank Panin's tax obligations be around IDR 300 billion and would provide a "fee" of IDR 25 billion.

The tax audit team then adjusted the results of the examination to Rp303.615 billion as stated in the Head of the Financial Administration Bureau on August 13, 2018, but the "fee" has not been given by Veronika.

Only on October 15, 2018 at the Directorate General of Taxes' Office, Veronika gave money to Wawan Ridwan for 500 thousand Singapore dollars from the promised commitment of Rp. 25 billion. Furthermore, Wawan Ridwan handed over all the "fee" money to Angin Prayitno through Dadan Ramdani, and Angin did not mind the lack of a "fee".

Regarding the verdict, Veronika immediately stated that she accepted, while the KPK prosecutor stated that she had thought about it for 7 days.

"Personally and my legal adviser stated that I accepted this decision recently and I would like to thank you and I apologize, Your Honor, if during this trial there was a speech and attitude that I did not like in your eyes," said Veronika.