The Indonesian government should immediately capitalize on a Supreme Court ruling against Hutomo “Tommy” Mandala Putra in a tax evasion case to seize his financial assets in Guernsey, an anticorruption watchdog says.
On July 14, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Finance Ministry’s case review of a tax evasion dispute with car company PT Timor Putra Nasional, which was owned by Tommy, son of the late former president Soeharto.
The Finance Ministry had reported that the company should pay debts of up to Rp 2.37 trillion (US$263 million) to the state.
Transparency International Indonesia board executive Teten Masduki urged the Indonesian government to use the latest ruling to file an order for the Guernsey Royal Court to issue an order to freeze Tommy’s assets in BNP Paribas.
“The Attorney General’s Office has to immediately take the initiative in using the Supreme Court’s ruling by urging the Guernsey court to issue a new funds freezing order,” he said.
In 2007, the Guernsey Royal Court ordered a freezing order for the account of Tommy’s company, PT Garnet, which the Financial Intelligence Service (FIS) suspected contained money derived from crime. The account, which amounted to ¤36 million, was deposited with BNP Paribas.
In 2009, the court lifted the freezing order but the FIS has not permitted BNP Paribas to release the Garnet fund.
Adnan T. Husodo said the government must act immediately because the FIS could grant permission to transfer the funds at anytime.
“Should the FIS grant the permission, the account would belong completely to Tommy Soeharto again and I think this would be a big loss for the government,” he said.
Teten added that in addition to requesting a new freezing order, the government should initiate fresh proceedings in Guernsey to confiscate and repatriate the funds to Indonesia.
The Indonesian government previously requested the Guernsey court repatriate the funds to Indonesia.
The court declined the request, reasoning that the government lacked resolve in recovering Tommy’s assets in Indonesia.
Teten said the government had not shown initiative in taking any action to repatriate the funds.
“The Supreme Court, the Attorney General’s Office and the Foreign Ministry have not utilized the case review ruling to chase after state assets hidden overseas, which in this case, is the Garnet fund,” he said. (gzl)
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