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Minister Budi Arie in hot water over online gambling indictment
An indictment from Attorney General’s Office (AGO) prosecutors alleged Budi Arie Setiadi, who once served as the communications and information minister, of accepting half of total kickbacks received from online gambling operators.
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Cooperatives Minister Budi Arie Setiadi (right) and Deputy Minister Ferry Juliantono (left) talk to journalists following a meeting with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) commissioners at the antigraft body headquarters in Jakarta on May 21. During the meeting, the minister request the KPK to help in preventing corruption from marring the Red and White village cooperative initiative, one of President Prabowo Subianto's flagship program. (Antara/Reno Esnir)
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ooperatives Minister Budi Arie Setiadi has been implicated in an ongoing trial pertaining to an online gambling scandal involving Communications and Digital Ministry employees, after the minister’s name was mentioned in the indictment letter against the defendants.
During a hearing at the South Jakarta District Court on May 14, prosecutors read an indictment against four defendants.
They were former state-owned enterprise (SOE) commissioner Zulkarnaen Apriliantony, a member of the ministry’s expert staff Adhi Kismanto, a president director of a privately-owned company Alwin Jabarti Kiemas and a middleman Muhrijan aka Agus.
In the indictment letter, Budi, who served as the communications and information minister from July 2023 until the end of the second administration of former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, allegedly allowed online gambling websites to continue their operation under his watch.
According to the prosecutors, the communications ministry’s employees received around Rp 8 million (US$487) from each website they protected.
“Budi Arie Setiadi would receive 50 percent of their total earnings from all the gambling sites,” prosecutors read the indictment.
The remaining kickbacks were shared between Adhi and Zulkarnaen, with the latter allegedly pocketing more than Rp 52 billion for protecting online gambling sites from being closed down by Indonesian authorities.
