Responding to the issue, Jokowi said on Wednesday he entrusted the case to the KPK.

Sofyan is the fifth suspect to be named in the case, following Golkar Party lawmaker Eni Maulani Saragih, businessman Johannes Budisutrisno Kotjo, former social affairs minister and Golkar politician Idrus Marham and coal mining company owner Samin Tan.

Eni, Johannes and Idrus have all been convicted, with prison sentences of six years, four-and-a-half years and three years, respectively, while Samin is still awaiting trial.

Johannes, a shareholder of Blackgold Natural Resources Ltd., was accused of giving kickbacks to Eni, Idrus and Sofyan to secure the right to develop a coal-fired steam power plant known as PLTU Riau 1.

During her interrogation and trial, Eni claimed she had been instructed to accept the bribes by Golkar leadership, saying that some of the money was used to fund the party’s extraordinary national meeting (Munaslub) in December 2017.

“During the congress, Bu Eni became the committee’s treasurer. At that time, she asked for Rp 2 billion [US$136,767] from Pak Kotjo, which was later used for operational fees before, during and after the congress,” Eni’s lawyer Fadli Nasution said last September.

During her trial, Eni also said that she, Johannes, Idrus and another Golkar politician had met with Golkar chairman Airlangga Hartanto at his house to discuss the PLTU Riau 1 project.

Airlangga denied any knowledge of the graft case, but Golkar officials returned Rp 700 million to the KPK, claiming that they had no idea that the money was the result of graft.

“It doesn’t have anything to do with the party or our activities. Had we known that it came from an illegal source in the first place, of course we wouldn’t have accepted it,” Golkar executive Ace Hasan Syadzily said at the time.

Meanwhile, Idrus, Golkar’s former secretary-general, was also alleged to have asked Johannes to help Eni finance her husband’s campaign to become regent of Temanggung, Central Java.

Despite his conviction, Idrus denied that he was involved in the case and said he knew nothing about any transfer of funds from Johannes or the use of funds for party activities.

Sofyan, meanwhile, has not been available for comment since being named a suspect on Tuesday, with his lawyer saying that the former banker was in France on a business trip.

There is speculation that the KPK might name more suspects in the case, particularly other PLN executives.

Center of Energy and Resources Indonesia (CERI) executive director Yusri Usman said Nicke Widyawati, PLN’s former strategic planning director and current president director of state-owned oil company Pertamina, might be in the antigraft body’s crosshairs.

“According to KPK deputy chairman Saut Situmorang’s statement on Tuesday, Sofyan ordered a PLN director to coordinate with [Eni and Johannes],” Yusri said in a statement on Wednesday.

The KPK, however, said no other suspects had been named.

“Up to today we have processed five people, including [Sofyan], the president director of PLN. We don’t have any
other new suspects yet,” KPK spokesperson Febri Diansyah told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday. “We want to focus on the current investigation first.”

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