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report released on Wednesday brings to light secret documents claimed to be evidence that some of the country’s richest people and top firms use tax havens to avoid taxes, a practice that has gone on since the days of the New Order regime, causing state losses of trillions of rupiah.

According to the report by The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), published on its website on Tuesday, nine of Indonesia’s 11 richest families have taken shelter in tropical tax havens, owning more than 190 offshore trusts and companies.

The billionaires are among nearly 2,500 Indonesians found by the ICIJ in the files of Singapore-based Portcullis TrustNet.

The billionaires were closely allied to the late president, Soeharto.

The documents show the number of new offshore companies and trusts set up for Indonesians has significantly increased since Soeharto’s rule came to an end in 1998.

The family of Mochtar Riady, whose US$2.2 billion put them in 11th place on Forbes’ 2012 list of Indonesia’s richest, have at least 11 offshore companies and trusts. The Cook Islands in the South Pacific were a preferred destination for the Riady family’s offshore entities from 1989 until at least 2009, according to the report.

The Riady family own the giant Lippo Group whose business includes property, retail, media, healthcare and hospitality.

The files also supposedly show that Lippo “does not want to be seen dealing offshore”.

When contacted by The Jakarta Post, a secretary to James Riady, son of chief executive and patriarch Mochtar, said that he was out of town and unavailable.

Another billionaire in the ICIJ report, Eka Tjipta Widjaja, was second on Forbes’ 2012 list, with $7.7 billion of net worth. The tycoon runs the Sinar Mas Group with interests in pulp and paper and affiliated Golden Agri-Resources, run by son Franky Oesman Widjaja. Golden Agri-Resources is the world’s second-largest oil palm plantation company with a planted area of 459,500 hectares.

Eka Tjipta, along with three other Indonesian tycoons, are said to have over 140 offshore companies, mostly in the British Virgin Islands.

The managing director of Sinar Mas, Gandi Sulistiyanto, denied the reports. “It is true that our companies have assets overseas but all practices are legal and transparent,” he told the Post.

He claimed all foreign business activities were reported to the authorities, as required by law. “We wouldn’t dare engage in illicit practices because we are public companies,” Gandi said.

Other billionaires on the list are Marimutu Sinivasan, chairman of Texmaco, a textile and industrial conglomerate, and tobacco tycoons, the Sampoerna family. Both are said to have used the Cook Islands for their offshore affairs.

The family of former president BJ Habibie is also in the report. His son, Thareq Kemal Habibie, was one of many Indonesians to set up offshore in 1998. He formed two companies in the British Virgin Islands immediately before Soeharto’s resignation.

Ten years later, another son, Ilham, organized at least seven offshore companies to support domestic enterprises including mineral exploration and mining.

The ICIJ said Sinivasan was not available for comment, while Habibie’s sons and Sampoerna did not respond to a request for comment.

University of Indonesia (UI) tax expert Gunadi believes many companies went to countries with low or even zero taxes to evade their tax obligations.

“The companies could be criminally charged but it is difficult to investigate them,” he told the Post.