Three years out, Asian Agri remains untouchable

After more than three years, the Attorney General's Office (AGO) said Thursday it could not proceed with the tax evasion case involving agribusiness firm PT Asian Agri due to lack of evidence.

“Tax office investigators have not found sufficient evidence as required by the prosecution team,” Deputy Attorney General Darmono said after a coordination meeting between the AGO and House of Representatives' Commission XI, which oversees financial affairs, at the AGO in Jakarta.

He said that the AGO had arranged a meeting between the prosecution team and the tax office investigators to discuss the case on Friday.

During the planned meeting, the prosecution team would seek solutions to constraints facing the tax office investigators so that the investigation into the alleged tax evasion could continue.

The alleged tax evasion was first reported to the authorities in 2006 by Asian Agri's then chief financial controller Vincentius Amin. At the time, he was a fugitive in Singapore because the company, owned by tycoon Sukanto Tanoto, had accused him of embezzling funds.

Vincentius was arrested, tried and is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence for money laundering and forgery.

The high-profile tax evasion case has seen no developments since 2008, when for unknown reasons the taxation directorate, which had implicated 12 Asian Agri officials, handed the dossiers over to the prosecutors’ office.

Since then the dossiers have gone back and forth between the directorate and the prosecutor’s office several times. (rdf)