Basuki, a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) who served as Pertamina president commissioner from 2019 to 2024, said that it would have taken more than just the people the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) had named suspects in the graft case to cover up the Rp 193.7 trillion ($11.9 billion) in state losses.

“This case is more than just Riva Siahaan. I think people from the Supreme Audit Agency [BPK] could also be involved,” Basuki said in a podcast uploaded by media company Narasi on Friday. 

“There are powerful hands at play. The case could [implicate] a wide [array of people] if it can be thoroughly investigated.”

Basuki was referring to Riva, the president director of PT Pertamina Patra Niaga, who was among the six executives at three Pertamina subsidiaries the AGO named graft suspects last week. Authorities also arrested three people from two private oil and gas companies, including Kerry Adrianto, the son of oil tycoon Riza Chalid.

The suspects allegedly manipulated Pertamina’s oil import and export deals from 2018 to 2023 by reducing refinery output to force imports through rigged tenders with inflated prices, as well as procuring lower-octane subsidized gasoline to be sold fraudulently as a more expensive brand. 

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