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ormer tax official Gayus H. Tambunan, now a suspect in one of Indonesia’s highest-profile tax-evasion cases, on Tuesday said he had received money from three companies linked to politician and business tycoon Aburizal Bakrie.

Testifying at the trial of businessman Andi Kosasih, also implicated in the Gayus case, at South Jakarta District Court, Gayus said the three companies were PT Kaltim Prima Coal, PT Bumi Resources and Arutmin.

Gayus had earlier told police investigators he had amassed Rp 28 billion (US$3.13 million) from several tax consultants and private companies, including that of the Bakrie family, which had allegedly requested his help in evading taxes.

“I received a total of around Rp 30 billion [$3.3 million] from the three companies,” Gayus told prosecutor Muhammad Rum.

“At the beginning of 2008, PT Kaltim Prima Coal [KPC] gave me $500,000. I then received $500,000 from PT Bumi Resources and $2 million from both KPC and Arumtin,” Gayus said.

Rum then asked Gayus what he had done with the Rp 2 billion not found in his bank accounts.

“I spent it all,” he said

Gayus explained that the bribe money from the three companies was intended to accelerate the issuance of a tax assessment letter for KPC from the Gambir tax office in Central Jakarta.

“I don’t know why it had to take one year for the office to issue the letter. I was tasked to help speed up the issuance, and I managed to issue the letter within two months,” Gayus said as quoted by
tempointeraktif.com.

Presiding judge Prasetyo Ibnu Asmara also asked Gayus why the three companies had offered him such large amounts of money.

“I don’t know whether the number was ‘fantastic’ or not. For a small company, this amount would probably seem huge, but for large companies this was small,” Gayus said.

Meanwhile, the Bakrie group has denied Gayus’ allegations, saying the defendant had no evidence whatsoever that could implicate the group in the case.

“I think defendant Gayus needs to come out with new confessions that he can prove with evidence,”
PT Bumi Resources corporate secretary Dileep Srivastava told The Jakarta Post.

“These are old and often-repeated statements of his that he is never able to show evidence for,” Dileep said, adding that people making accusations needed to provide courts with evidence, not the other way around.

PT Bumi Resources’ tax status had been cleared and this had been reinforced by a Supreme Court ruling, he said.

During Kosasih’s trial, Gayus said investigators had only confiscated Rp 17 million from his account at BCA’s Bintaro branch in South Jakarta.

“It was not Rp 370 million, as recently reported by some media outlets,” he said.

Gayus has testified several times in corruption trials related to his current trial, where it is alleged he paid $2 million in bribes to National Police detectives, prosecutors, the judge presiding at his criminal trial and several attorneys to ensure his acquittal in March and to unfreeze his accounts.