State Loses IDR 5.7 Trillion, Attorney General Names 10 Suspects in Nickel Mine Corruption Cases in North Sulawesi Province

JAKARTA - The Attorney General's Office of the Republic of Indonesia has named 10 people as suspects in the alleged corruption case of nickel ore mining in the PT Antam mining business permit (IUP) area in the Mandiodo Block, North Konawe Regency (Konut), Southeast Sulawesi (Southeast Sulawesi).

The Attorney General's Office of the Republic of Indonesia named two new suspects in a case that caused losses to state finances worth IDR 5.7 trillion, namely RJ as the former Director General of Minerals and Coal (Minerba) of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), and HJ as the sub coordinator of work plans and Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources budget (RKAB).

"Regarding the case at the Southeast Sulawesi High Prosecutor's Office, which has so far named 10 people as suspects, today we have named two suspects. So the two suspects are from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources," said Head of the Legal Information Center (Kapuspenkum) of the Attorney General's Office Ketut Sumedana in his statement, Wednesday, August 9.

The role of the two suspects, said Ketut, was to provide a policy related to the Mandiodo Block which caused a total state loss of IDR 5.7 trillion.

"Once again I convey that from the two suspects today we have named and detained 10 suspects," said Ketut.

The two suspects were then detained at the Salemba Detention Center at the Attorney General's Office for 20 days from 9 to 28 August. After the case is declared complete, the two suspects will be detained at the Southeast Sulawesi Attorney General's Office.

Previously, the Attorney General's Office also named two suspects, namely SM as Head of Geology at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (Former Director for Development of Mineral Exploitation at the Directorate General of Minerals and Coal at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources), and EVT as the evaluator of the work plan and budget for the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

Then, on July 19 2023, another suspect was also named, namely WAS as the owner of PT Kara Nusantara Investama.

Previously, investigators at the Southeast Sulawesi Attorney's Office had named four suspects, namely HW, YAS, AA and OS.

In this case, the modus operandi of the suspect was mining in the mining business permit area (WIUP) of a mining company named PT A in the North Konawe area, the proceeds of which were sold to a number of smelters using flying or fake documents.