JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has revealed a hand-in-hand operation (OTT) related to the management of residence permits for foreign nationals (WNA) that ensnared Deputy Minister of Immigration and Corrections (Imipas) Silmy Karim starting from the extortion case of the Foreign Manpower Utilization Plan (RPTKA) at the Ministry of Manpower (Kemenaker).
This was conveyed by the Chairman of the KPK Setyo Budiyanto when officially announcing the determination of the suspects Silmy Karim and seven others. He said that the findings were strengthened by a report of unusual financial transactions from the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK).
The KPK found that there were 35 employees of the Ministry of Imipas in the period 2019-2025 whose funds were detected in 96 bank accounts with a total value of Rp. 366.7 billion.
"Of the total cash flow, only Rp9.7 billion or about 3 percent comes from salaries/allowances. Meanwhile, Rp357 billion or the other 97 percent is suspected to come from parties requesting immigration management services, such as visas, passports, labor, and residence permits," said Setyo in a press conference at the KPK's Merah Putih building, Kuningan Persada, South Jakarta, Thursday, June 4.
Then, during the investigation, Silmy, who served as the Director General of Immigration in 2023-2024, allegedly carried out extortion by asking for a quota from the management of residence permits for foreign nationals through Jaya Saputra as the Director of Residence Permits.
Then Jaya Saputra ordered Tessar Bayu Setyaji and Bagus Bramantyo as Deputy Director at the Directorate of Residence Permits, to withdraw the 'extra fee' from foreigners. Setyo said there was a term 'every click has a price' for the application documents for residence permits that were processed.
"To carry out this order, BGS (Bagus) and TBS (Tessar) provided access to JSP (Head of the ITAS Status Change Team, Juniadi Sri Priambudi) and GST (Gusti Bernardiansyah as a staff of the Sub-Directorate of Residence Permits)," said the former KPK Investigation Director.
Furthermore, Gusti Bernardiansyah is suspected of using several nominee accounts as a collection account to accommodate fees from each residence permit management sourced from a service bureau or foreign national party.
In addition, during the period 2022-2026, the parties at the Directorate General of Imipas/Ministry of Imipas received money directly through cash or transfer or through layering/intermediaries, at least reaching IDR 145.5 billion.
Setyo said the money was distributed to individuals at the Directorate General of Imipas/Ministry of Imipas every week on Friday. Silmy Karim is said to receive a regular allowance of Rp. 100 million per week.
Setyo said that to disguise the money distribution, the parties used special distribution codes, such as the use of the term 'angel' which was intended as a distribution of money for high officials in the environment of the Director General of Imipas/Ministry of Imipas.
"Other codes use the term payment for band group concerts, such as vocalists, guitarists, backing vocals, and choreographers, which represent the flow of money for certain parties," he said.
Furthermore, said Setyo, the money was used by the parties for personal interests, asset purchases, and business activities such as establishing a towing company to disguise the receipt of the money.
On the other hand, Setyo said, when the RPTKA case at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration which was handled by the KPK surfaced, the parties concerned were allegedly panicked and immediately withdrew money from the deposit account.
"The money, bought a number of gold. In fact, when buying a house, the payment is made using gold pieces," he said.
Based on these findings, the KPK knows that foreign nationals are involved in processing residence permit documents through a service bureau. Furthermore, the service bureau will help with the payment of PNBP, verification, until the foreign national gets a residence permit.
However, when in practice, the process of applying for a residence permit is complicated and always rejected.
He said that applicants were forced to pay additional fees at the verification counter at the Immigration Office (region) and to pay again for verification at the Directorate General of Immigration (center) so that the application could be processed.
"This illustrates that the illegal acts in this alleged corruption and extortion case were carried out systematically by the parties, from the command flow (top-down) to the flow of money (bottom-up/deposit)," he said.
In this case, the KPK named eight suspects from a silent operation carried out on Wednesday, June 3. The details are as follows:
1. Wamen Imipas 2025-2026 who is also the Director General (Dirjen) of Imipas 2023-2024 Silmy Karim;
2. Acting Director General of Immigration 2024-2025 Saffar Muhammad Godam;
3. Head of the Regional Office (Kakanwil) of the Directorate General of Immigration West Java who previously served as Director of Residence Permits and Immigration Status of the Directorate General of Immigration Jaya Saputra;
4. Sub-Directorate of Change of Status of Residence at the Directorate of Residence Permits and Immigration Status of the Directorate General of Immigration, Tessar Bayu Setyaji;
5. Kasubdit at the Directorate of Residence Permits Bagus Bramantyo;
6. Head of the Central Jakarta Immigration Office 2024-2025 and Head of the Special Class I Immigration Office for Non-TPI West Jakarta 2025-2026 Ronald Arman Abdullah;
7. Head of the ITAS Status Change Team, Juniadi Sri Priambudi; and
8. Staff of the Sub-Directorate Izin Tinggal Gusti Benardiansyah.
As a result of his actions, Silmy and the other seven suspects are suspected of violating Article 12 letter e and/or Article 12B of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption as amended by Law Number 20 of 2001 concerning the Eradication of Corruption Jo. Article 20 letter c of Law No. 1 of 2023 concerning the Criminal Code.
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