T

he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is intensifying its investigation into the Bank Indonesia vote-buying scandal in an effort to reveal the benefactor in the case.

KPK investigators questioned on Tuesday two employees of PT First Mujur Plantation and Industry, a company which first bought traveler’s checks used to bribe at least 33 lawmakers in 2004.

The two, identified as company commissioners Yan Eli Mangatas Siahaan and Ronald Harijanto, underwent a questioning session as witnesses for suspect Nunun Nurbaeti who acted as a go-between in the case.

The case has also implicated Bank Artha Graha, owned by tycoon Tomy Winata.

The KPK launched its probe into the scandal in early 2009 and has sent dozens of House members to jail.

KPK investigators, however, are yet to discover who supplied Nunun with the 480 traveler’s checks, worth Rp 24 billion (US$2.66 million), to bribe the lawmakers to swing their votes for Miranda Goeltom, who was vying for a senior Bank Indonesia deputy governor position in 2004.

Court proceedings at the Jakarta Corruption Court has revealed that the same checks were purchased by First Mujur in 2004 to buy small oil palm plantations in North Sumatra, but the chain of evidence regarding the flow of the checks broke as Ferry Yan, who brokered the purchases, died in 2007.

“We are looking into whether all those things [the company, Artha Graha and the purchases] are related with the bribery,” the KPK’s deputy chief, Busyro Muqoddas, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

The court discovered that First Mujur president director Hidayat Lukman ordered his finance director, Budi Santoso, to purchase the same checks from Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII) using Artha Graha money.

However, Budi told the court that he did not know how the checks ended up in the hands of House members, as they were supposed to be used by Hidayat to buy small oil palm plantations from local farmers.

Budi also said Hidayat told him that the purchases of the plantations were canceled only after Budi delivered the checks to Ferry. Ferry paid Rp 13 billion in installments for the checks, but had not paid off the remainder by the time he died.