Investigators named two suspects in the case, identified only as OHW and H, the commissioner and director of PT A2Z Solusindo Teknologi (AST), respectively. 

They allegedly used a shell company and thousands of bank accounts to circulate and disguise the money flow linked to online gambling. PT TGC, a subsidiary of AST, received and processed funds obtained from online gambling through various payment gateways and technologies.

OHW and H allegedly used thousands of bank accounts to collect funds through cash deposits and withdrawals, before being transferred to several shell companies and wired to online gambling operators.

“They kept transferring the money to make it harder for us to trace,” Bareskrim chief Comr. Gen. Wahyu Widada said at a press briefing in Jakarta on Wednesday, as quoted by Tempo.co. 

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The money involved in the case included around Rp 250 billion in 4,656 accounts of 22 banks, and Rp 276 billion in government bonds. Bareskrim also seized four luxury vehicles and froze 197 accounts across eight banks in their investigation.

Wahyu added that Bareskrim would store the money seized in the case in the department’s special holding account 

The suspects had been involved in the gambling business since 2007, and had been laundering money since 2019, Wahyu went on to say.

Gambling of all kinds is illegal in Indonesia.

Article 303 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) stipulates that anyone caught organizing and participating in gambling activities can face up to 10 years in prison and a Rp 25 million fine. Meanwhile, the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law mandates a maximum punishment of six years behind bars and Rp 1 billion fines for people found guilty of distributing gambling content on online platforms.