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AGO names fifth suspect in palm oil graft case
Economist Lin Che Wei allegedly helped several companies get palm oil export permits, even though they had not met the requirements for those permits.
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Lin Che Wei detained by the Attorney General’s Office after being named a suspect in a graft case related to palm oil export permits on Tuesday. (Courtesy of Kejaksaan Agung/-)
T
he Attorney General’s Office (AGO) on Tuesday named its fifth suspect, economist Lin Che Wei, in a corruption case that has been blamed for contributing toward a domestic cooking oil shortage.
Lin is alleged to have conspired with former Trade Ministry director general Indrasari Wisnu Wardhana to help several companies secure export permits for crude palm oil (CPO) and its derivatives, between January 2021 and March 2022. Indrasari was named a suspect in late April.
“The suspect is believed to have worked with the Trade Ministry director general to aid certain CPO producers get export permits through illegal means, instead of following the domestic market obligation [DMO] requirement at 20 percent,” said ST Burhanuddin, the attorney general, during a virtual press conference on Tuesday.
The DMO was a policy put in place by the Trade Ministry in late January through mid-March. It required CPO exporters to allocate at least 20 percent of their produce for domestic needs, in the hope of reducing cooking oil prices.
Lin will be detained for the next 20 days, until June 6, as investigators build a case against him. He is suspected of violating either Article 2 or Article 3 of the 2001 Corruption Law.
Prior to Lin’s arrest, four people had been named suspects: the Trade Ministry’s Indrasari, PT Wilmar Nabati Indonesia president commissioner Master Parulian Tumanggor, Permata Hijau Group senior manager of corporate affairs Stanley MA and PT Musim Mas general manager Pierre Togar.
Read also: AGO blames corruption for cooking oil scarcity
