Supreme Court Rejects Cassation Of Defendant Of Money Laundering Proceeds From Investors In East Lombok NTB

Supreme Court Building. ANTARA/Wildan Anjarbakti/am.

MATARAM - The judge of the Supreme Court rejected the cassation of defendant Zaenudin and the public prosecutor (JPU) who handled the case of money laundering (TPPU) resulting from fraud by an investor for a tourist area on the island of Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB).

"So we have received an excerpt of the cassation decision from the court. Our and the defendant's cassation was rejected", said Feddy Hantyo Nugroho, a public prosecutor from the NTB High Court in Mataram as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, July 27.

Thus, said Feddy, the decision used in this case will refer to the decision of the appeal judge at the NTB High Court.

"What is used as a reference is the appeal decision", he said.

In the appeal decision, the judge sentenced the defendant Zaenudin to 4 years in prison. The verdict is lighter than the Mataram District Court's decision.

However, in the appeal decision, the prosecutor was concerned about the evidence of assets being returned to the person at the place of confiscation or the defendant Zaenudin.

This is different from the decision at the first instance court which sentenced Zaenudin to 10 years in prison. The judge asked that the evidence be returned to the victim Andry Setiadi Karyadi.

"Those considerations are the problem. The assets should be returned to the victim (Andry), not to the defendant", he said.

Thus, the prosecutor is now arranging further steps. There is a plan for his party to file an extraordinary legal action or reconsideration (PK).

"For this reason, we are still waiting for a copy of the verdict. From there, we will see first what is the consideration for the cassation to be rejected", said Feddy.

The Zaenudin money laundering case is a follow-up to a general crime related to fraud and embezzlement of land sales and purchases in the Pandanan tourist area, Sekotong, West Lombok Regency.

In the general criminal case, Zaenudin was proven to have cheated and embezzled money from the sale of land purchases from Andry Setiadi Karyadi. Zaenudin was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison.

The victim, in this case, is an investor from East Java, Andre Setiadi Karyadi. Zaenudin previously promised him land investments in Pandanan and Meang, Sekotong District, West Lombok Regency; and in the Paradise Beach area, Jerowaru District, East Lombok Regency. The total area is 8 hectares with a value of IDR 18 billion.

However, it turned out that the promise was only mere talk. Although cash had been given, the certificate for the promised land never arrived. Investors also felt consumed by Zaenudin's trick.

In fact, as a result of his actions, the investor who works as a dishwasher in America is now unable to return to Indonesia before his tax debt is paid off.

Therefore, investors reported Zaenudin's actions to the NTB Police. From the police investigation, the suspect was finally revealed to have disguised the proceeds from the sale and purchase of land worth IDR 16.3 billion through his wife.

That basis then made Zaenudin a suspect. He is suspected of violating Article 3 in conjunction with Article 4 of Law Number 8 of 2010 concerning the Prevention and Eradication of the Crime of Money Laundering.

During development, police investigators found that the money belonging to the investor had turned into land assets in several tourist areas on the island of Lombok. The assets are in the name of RO, the wife of Zaenudin.

The assets are already in the form of certificates, some are in the form of certificates of ownership (SHM) and some are still sporadic. The number reaches dozens of plots of land. All of them were confiscated by the police.

As a suspect, RO is also suspected of Article 3, Article 4, Article 5, and Article 10 of Law no. 8/2010.