Edward Hutahaean Charged With Receiving US$1 Million In BTS 4G Case

The trial of reading the indictment for the case of the 4G Base Transceiver Station (BTS) and supporting infrastructure at BAKTI Kominfo/DOK ANTARA

JAKARTA - President Commissioner of PT Laman Tekno Digital Naek Parulian Wasington Hutahaean alias Edward Hutahaean was charged with receiving US$1 million in cash related to the case of Base Transceiver Station (BTS) 4G and supporting infrastructure at BAKTI Kominfo. The prosecutor revealed that the money was received from BAKTI Kominfo President Director Anang Achmad Latif through the President Director of PT Mora Telematika Indonesia Galumbang Menak, with a source of money from the Commissioner of PT Solitechmedia Synergy Irwan Hermawan for the management of alleged problems in the provision of 4G BTS and supporting infrastructure at BAKTI Kominfo in 2020-2022. "The management aims to prevent the problem from being reported and followed up by the Indonesian Attorney General's Office and the Indonesian Financial Audit Agency (BPK)," said the prosecutor during a hearing reading the indictment at the Jakarta Corruption Court (Tipikor), Antara, Thursday, April 4. For this reason, the prosecutor emphasized that Edward's actions were as regulated and threatened with crime in Article 12 letter b of Law (UU) Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption as amended by Law Number 20 of 2001 or Article 11 of Law 31/1999 as amended by Law 20/2001. In addition, he continued, the defendant's actions were also threatened with criminal charges in Article 5 Paragraph (1) letter b in conjunction with Article 15 of Law 31/1999 as amended by Law 20/2001 or Article 5 Paragraph (2) of Law 31/1999 as amended by Law 20/2001 or Article 4 of Law Number 8 of 2010 concerning the Prevention and Eradication of the Crime of Money Laundering (TPPU) or Article 5 Paragraph (1) Law 8/2010. The prosecutor revealed that in June 2022, Edward asked for a meeting with Anang Achmad Latif at a restaurant because he knew about the BTS 4G BAKTI Kominfo case. During the meeting, Edward offered legal assistance so that the BAKTI Kominfo case was not followed up by law enforcement officials. Regarding the management of the problem, the prosecutor said that Edward asked for USD 8 million, but Anang refused because he admitted that he did not have that much money. For this response, said the prosecutor, Edward advised Anang to borrow money from Galumbang Menak, who at that time was getting a project in Kominfo, namely the Palapa Ring project. Anang, continued the prosecutor, contacted Galumbang and told the meeting, where Edward asked to prepare 2 million US dollars in three days. However, the prosecutor said Galumbang only prepared 1 million US dollars because he admitted that he only had that amount of money and gave it to Edward. "The money was handed over in two black suitcases containing 500 thousand US dollars each," he said. Previously, the Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampdius) of the Attorney General's Office, Friday (13/10/2023), named Edward Hutahaean as a suspect in the alleged criminal act of conspiracy to bribe in the corruption case of BTS 4G infrastructure development project BAKTI Kominfo.

In the trial of the BTS Kominfo case at the Jakarta Corruption Court in early October 2023, the name Edward was mentioned by the defendant Galumbang Menak because he had asked for US$2 million in connection with securing the alleged corruption case of BTS 4G BAKTI Kominfo.