Mahfud: Ministry Of Finance Agrees To Follow Up On LHA Of Alleged Money Laundering From PPATK

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD (central) gave a press statement accompanied by Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and PPATKP Head Ivan Yustiavandana (ANTARA/Gilang Galiartha)

JAKARTA - The Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Mahfud MD said that the Ministry of Finance agreed to proceed with the completion of all Analysis Results Reports (LHA) of the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) which are suspected of being money laundering crimes (TPPU).

Mahfud said this was one of the agreements resulting from the Meeting of the National Coordinating Committee for the Prevention and Eradication of ML which was attended by Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Head of PPATK Ivan Yustiavandana at the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Jakarta.

"The Ministry of Finance will continue to finalize all reports on the results of the analysis (LHA) which are suspected of being criminal acts of money laundering from PPATK, both those involving employees within the Ministry of Finance and other parties," Mahfud said at a press conference after the meeting reported by ANTARA, Monday, March 20.

According to Mahfud, follow-up action against the PPATK's LHA previously carried out by the Ministry of Finance through the Directorate General of Taxes (DGT) and the Directorate General (DG) of Customs and Excise, and has resulted in a total refund of IDR 8.2 trillion.

Mahfud gave an example of the case where the PPATK reported to the Ministry of Finance that an entity, both a company and an individual, paid IDR 10 billion in tax, when it should have been IDR 15 billion.

The findings of the report are usually followed up by the Ministry of Finance to be recalculated and require the entity concerned to pay the difference in findings accompanied by fines,

"So from the follow-up results carried out by the Ministry of Finance (through) the two directorates general earlier, the total is IDR 8.2 trillion, (namely) taxes IDR 7.08 trillion and customs IDR 1.1 trillion," said Mahfud.

The Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs said that the next agreement from the meeting was that if the alleged money laundering report found evidence of a crime, then the LHA would be followed up with a legal process by the Ministry of Finance as a predicate crime investigator.

"So later the Ministry of Finance will follow up. The corruption is okay, it's over, someone has gone to jail, and the money has been confiscated, but the money laundering will be followed up. If evidence is found, the Ministry of Finance will investigate as a civil servant investigator in the tax sector. and customs," he said.

Mahfud added that he did not rule out the possibility of following up on the discovery of evidence of money laundering and tracing the LHA could be handed over to other law enforcement officials.

"That is the police, prosecutors, or KPK. That is the agreement," he said.

In addition, Mahfud emphasized that the Kornas Committee for the Prevention and Eradication of ML would conduct an evaluation of the LHA which was suspected of being involved in ML and had been sent by PPATK to law enforcement officials.

Mahfud explained that this was done to optimize the application of Law Number 8 of 2010 concerning the Prevention and Eradication of ML.

Mahfud reminded that eradicating corruption is relatively easier because the measurement is clear if the action has fulfilled three aspects, namely harming state finances, enriching oneself/other parties/corporations, and breaking the law.

According to Mahfud, TPPU is much more dangerous and much bigger. Because of this, the TPPU Law was issued so that the government could recover greater state losses than losses due to corruption.

"It's actually bigger if we are chased, it could be bigger than the results of corruption crimes," he said.

The meeting was held to continue the discussion and action regarding the findings of the PPATK report regarding suspicious transactions of IDR 300 trillion relating to the Ministry of Finance which turned out to be IDR 349 ​​trillion.

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani on the same occasion said that the figure was obtained from the recapitulation of data on the results of analysis, examination, and information on financial transactions related to the duties and functions of the Ministry of Finance mid 2009-2023 submitted by PPATK on March 13, 2023, through Letter Number SR/3160/AT. 01.01/III/2023 with 46 pages of attachments in the form of 300 letters.