KLHK-PPATK Forms Joint Team For Investigation Of Money Laundering

Chairman of the National Coordination Committee for Prevention and Eradication of Money Laundering Crimes (TPPU) Mahfud MD (center) held a press conference related to the formation of a joint team to investigate money laundering/PHOTOS ANTARA/Sugiharto Purnama

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) together with the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) formed a joint team to investigate money laundering.

Director General of Environmental and Forestry Law Enforcement KLHK Rasio Ridho Sani said the formation of a joint team was important to create a deterrent effect on environmental and forestry criminals.

"This step is important for us to do, considering the impact of environmental and forestry crimes is enormous," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, May 15.

The initiation of the TPPU Joint Team is a form of implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding between PPATK and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry in 2019.

The TPPU Joint Team departs from the provisions of Article 46 of Presidential Regulation Number 50 of 2011 concerning Procedures for Implementing the Authority of the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center which explains that a joint team can be formed consisting of criminal investigators of origin and PPATK.

The investigation into the alleged crime of money laundering originating from environmental and forestry crimes is an entry point for KLHK Law Enforcement Investigators to prove the hiding of the proceeds of crime through the money laundering process from environmental and forestry crimes.

The ratio of revealing environmental and forestry crimes has a vulnerability to money laundering crimes.

The Money Laundering Crime (TPPU) Joint Team has duties and responsibilities including compiling and implementing strategies for handling allegations of money laundering offenses from environmental and forestry crimes, including tracing and recovering assets derived from reports on the results of the analysis and examination submitted by PPATK.

The joint team also carried out formal and informal cooperation with other state partners in order to optimize the handling of allegations of money laundering offenses from environmental and forestry crimes.

Collaboration and consolidation with other countries for tracing of crucial TPPU assets are carried out because the development of environmental and forestry crimes has become part of a transactional organized crime that involves the use of technology in it.

Currently, Indonesia through PPATK is also undergoing a mutual evaluation review by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in the context of Indonesia's full membership in the FATF.

The entry of Indonesia into full FATF members will have a positive impact on the credibility of the country's economy, namely increasing positive perceptions of Indonesia's financial system and compliance with the Indonesian financial services sector in accordance with FATF's international standards.

This increasing perception will have an impact on the rapid growth of the economy through investment both at home and abroad.

Chairman of the National Coordination Committee for Prevention and Eradication of TPPU Mahfud MD said that his party had just held a meeting of the money laundering crime committee which was attended by 13 ministries/agencies of TPPU members coupled with several other ministries and institutions related to money laundering.

"Especially this time I would like to announce that it was agreed to form a money laundering task force in the fields of environmental and forestry," said Mahfud, who also serves as Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs.