KPK summons 3 First Mujur officials

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) summoned officials from PT First Mujur Plantation and Industry for questioning in the Bank Indonesia (BI) vote-buying scandal on Tuesday.

The three were identified as company commissioners Yan Eli Mangatas Siahaan and Ronald Harijanto and deputy commissioner F.X. Sutrisno Gunawan.

“The three were summoned as witnesses for suspect Nunun Nurbaeti,” acting KPK spokesperson Priharsa Nugraha said on Tuesday.

However, only Yan Eli was seen at KPK headquarters in Kuningan, South Jakarta, as of noon Tuesday.

The case centers on the payment of Rp 24 billion (US$2.66 million) in bribes to 33 House of Representatives lawmakers to support Miranda Swaray Goeltom’s bid to become a senior Bank Indonesia deputy governor in 2004.

The bribes were given as traveler’s checks allegedly distributed by Nunun, who acted as a go-between through her alleged accomplice, Ari Malangjudo, after the lawmakers held “fit-and-proper” hearings for Miranda and two other candidates.

The KPK has not revealed who supplied Nunun with the traveler’s checks used to bribe lawmakers or who was the mastermind behind the scandal.

The Jakarta Corruption Court previously determined that Bank Artha Graha, owned by tycoon Tomy Winata, purchased the checks from Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII) in 2004 in the name of First Mujur.

The KPK recently questioned First Mujur finance director Budi Santoso who previously told the Jakarta Corruption Court that he did not know how the checks ended up in the pockets of lawmakers, as they were supposed to be used by president director Hidayat Lukman to buy small oil palm plantations in North Sumatra.

However, Budi said Hidayat told him that the purchase of the plantation was canceled only after Budi delivered the checks to Ferry Yan who brokered the purchase.

Ferry paid Rp 13 billion in cash for the checks, but had not paid off the remaining debt by the time he died in 2007. (mtq)