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Court confiscates Cendana family building as part of Rp 4.4t fine
The building is reportedly owned by youngest son Tommy Soeharto, chairman of the Berkarya Party.
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The youngest son of former Indonesian president Soeharto, Hutomo Mandala Putra (right) and former Indonesian Military chief Gatot Nurmantyo. (Reuters/Beawiharta)
T
he South Jakarta District Court has seized the Granadi Building, owned by the family of former president Soeharto, also known as the Cendana family, in relation to a misuse of funds under the now-defunct Supersemar Foundation.
The confiscation is part of efforts to execute a Supreme Court verdict that ordered the foundation, set up by the country’s former ruler, to pay a fine of Rp 4.4 trillion (US$320 million) after it was found guilty of misusing scholarship funds.
“[The building] has been officially confiscated,” South Jakarta District Court Spokesperson Achmat Guntur said as quoted by tempo.co on Monday.
The court is currently awaiting an assessment on the value of the building by a team of independent appraisals, Achmat said.
The building, which is located in South Jakarta, was reportedly the office of Soeharto’s youngest son Hutomo Mandala Putra, popularly known as Tommy Soeharto, who is also chairman of the Berkarya Party.
The Supersemar Foundation’s case dates back to 2008, when the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) filed a lawsuit at the South Jakarta District Court accusing the Soeharto family and the foundation of misusing scholarship funds by diverting them to family-owned companies, including Bank Duta in 1990 and airline PT Sempati Air from 1989 to 1997.
The court found the foundation guilty and ordered it to pay a penalty.
The Supreme Court upheld the decision in 2010 and demanded that the foundation pay $315 million and Rp 139.2 billion, which had a combined value of Rp 4.4 trillion at the time.
The South Jakarta District Court, which is authorized to seize the foundation’s assets if it failed to pay the fine, has already confiscated several assets belonging to the Cendana family, including an 8,120 square meter plot of land in Megamendung, Bogor, West Java.
So far, the government has been able to confiscate Rp 243 billion in assets from the foundation.
Separately, Berkarya Party executive Badaruddin Andi Picunang emphasized that Tommy was not involved with the Supersemar Foundation’s case, adding that the Granadi Building was not being used as the Berkarya Party’s headquarters. (afr)
