Three UGM Lecturers Sentenced to 2-3 Years for Corruption Case in the Purchase of Fictitious Cocoa

Three lecturers from UGM Yogyakarta who were defendants in the case of the fictitious purchase of cocoa beans by PT Pagilaran underwent a trial at the Semarang Corruption Court, Wednesday (4/3/2026). ANTARA/IC Senjaya

SEMARANG - A total of three lecturers from Gajah Mada University (UGM) were sentenced to two to three years in prison in a case of fictitious purchase of cocoa beans by PT Pagilaran, a plantation company owned by the campus in Batang Regency with a state loss of Rp. 6.7 billion.

Presiding Judge Rightmen Situmorang read the verdict of the three defendants, consisting of the President Director of PT Pagilaran Rachmat Gunadi, the Director of Business Development and Incubations of UGM Yogyakarta Hargo Utomo, and the Head of the Incubations Subdirectorate at the Directorate of Business Development and Incubations of UGM Yogyakarta Henry Yuliando, one by one.

The defendant, Rachmat Gunadi, was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of Rp50 million, which if not paid will be replaced with imprisonment for 50 days.

"Declaring the defendant proven to have violated Article 603 of Law Number 1 of 2023 concerning the Criminal Code," he said, as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, March 4.

For the defendant Rachmat Gunadi, the judge also imposed an additional penalty in the form of payment of compensation for state losses of IDR 3.6 billion.

Meanwhile, the defendants Hargo Utomo, and Henry Yuliando, were each sentenced to 2 years in prison and a fine of Rp. 30 million, which if not paid will be replaced with imprisonment for 30 days.

In his consideration, the judge considered that the elements of illegality and damage to state finances had been met.

The criminal act that occurred in 2019 started from the plan to purchase raw materials by UGM which amounted to Rp. 24 billion.

Of the allocation of raw materials, around 200 thousand tons of which are in the form of cocoa beans.

The purchase of 200 thousand tons of cocoa beans was agreed at a price of Rp37 thousand per kg, so that the value reached Rp7.4 billion.

The calculation of state losses is based on the total value of purchases minus taxes.