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AGO detains ex-Pertamina boss
The Attorney General's Office (AGO) detained on Monday the former president director of state-owned oil and gas holding company Pertamina, Karen Agustiawan.
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Former president director of Pertamina, Karen Galaila Agustiawan. (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)
T
he Attorney General's Office (AGO) detained on Monday the former president director of state-owned oil and gas holding company Pertamina, Karen Agustiawan, who had been named a graft suspect in early April.
The office said the move was to smoothen the investigation process.
Karen is suspected of being involved in a corruption case related to the company’s investment in the Basker Manta Gummy (BMG) Block, Australia, in 2009, which reportedly caused Rp 568 billion (US$39.7 million) in state losses.
She declined to comment on her detention after being interrogated for five hours.
“I don’t want to make any statement,” said a weeping Karen as quoted by tempo.co.
She stressed that she had tried to do best while leading the energy giant.
AGO deputy attorney general for special crimes Adi Toegarisman confirmed the detention.
“It’s true, we have decided to detain [Karen] for 20 days from Sept. 24 to Oct. 13 at Pondok Bambu Penitentiary in East Jakarta,” he said as quoted by bisnis.com.
The case started in 2009 when Pertamina's subsidiary, PT Pertamina Hulu Energy, acquired 10 percent of Australian oil firm Roc Oil Ltd for AU$66.2 million with the assumption of gaining 812 barrels of oil per day.
However, the BMG Australia Block could only produce 252 barrels per day for Pertamina. A year after in November, the oil block was shut down after Roc Oil Lt, Beach Petroleum, Sojitz Energy and Cieco Energy decided to halt crude oil production because of uneconomical reasons. (rsr/bbn)
