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Court sentences Artha to 3 years in prison
Reality bites: PT Kaltim Parna Industri Artha Meris Simbolon (center) cries as she leaves a courtroom at the Jakarta Corruption Court after a panel of judges sentenced her to three years in prison
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span class="inline inline-center">Reality bites: PT Kaltim Parna Industri Artha Meris Simbolon (center) cries as she leaves a courtroom at the Jakarta Corruption Court after a panel of judges sentenced her to three years in prison. JP/Wendra Ajistyatama
The Jakarta Corruption Court on Thursday found Artha Meris Simbolon, president director of ammonia manufacturer PT Kaltim Parna Industri, guilty of bribing former Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force (SKKMigas) head Rudi Rubiandini.
Presiding judge Syaiful Arif said that the businesswoman was guilty of violating Article 5 paragraph 1 of Corruption Law No. 31/1999 for distributing US$522,500 in kickbacks to Rudi in exchange for the latter's issuance of a recommendation to reduce gas prices for Kaltim Parna.
'We declare that the defendant, Artha Meris Simbolon, is guilty of bribery and sentence her to three years' imprisonment and Rp 100 million [$8,198] in fines, which can be replaced with a further three months in prison,' Syaiful said at the court.
The sentence was lower than the four and a half years' imprisonment and Rp 150 million in fines, replaceable with five months' prison time, sought by Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors.
Syaiful said that during the trial, the judges learned that Artha had demanded that Rudi help her company to obtain a lower gas price. SKKMigas has the authority to issue recommendations on gas prices, which are then decided by the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry.
The bribery scheme began when Kaltim Parna commissioner Marihad Simbolon, who is Artha's father, sent a proposal for a gas-price review to the ministry. The proposal was rejected, the ministry considering that the company could still earn healthy profits at the existing price.
Following the rejection, Marihad asked for Rudi's help to accommodate his request. Rudi agreed to help him and issued a recommendation to the ministry to lower gas prices for Kaltim Parna and to raise gas prices for its competitor, PT Kaltim Pacific Amoniak.
Artha told Rudi that the gas price of $12 per million British thermal units (mmbtu) for her company was too high, while Kaltim Pacific Amoniak could get gas at $5.30 per mmbtu.
In the hope of obtaining a lower gas price, Artha gave Rudi a total of $522,500 over four different occasions between March and August 2013 through Rudi's golf trainer Deviardi. However, before Kaltim Parna could receive a lower price, Rudi was arrested by the KPK.
'We found that the money given by the defendant to Rudi was
given with the assumption that Rudi would do something contrary to his duty as SKKMigas head,' Syaiful said.
Rudi and Deviardi were handed down prison terms of seven and four years, respectively, for their involvement in the bribery case.
During his trial, Rudi claimed that his acceptance of the bribes was motivated not by personal greed, but to meet the demands of what he described as 'stakeholders' of the agency.
He said that he had tried to resist for five months, but he finally took the money because of 'pressure from the stakeholders and the enormous offers'.
After Thursday's trial, Artha's lawyer Otto Hasibuan, who said that he was disappointed by the verdict, told the judges that he and his client would need time to decide if they would file an appeal or not.
