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Value of assets seized in Jiwasraya case exceed the Rp 16.81 trillion state losses
Assets range from cash, mutual funds, land to apartment units.
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Defendants wear face shields and masks during a hearing in the PT Asuransi Jiwasraya case at the Jakarta Corruption Court. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
T
he Attorney General's Office (AGO) has seized Rp 18.5 trillion (US$ 1.32 million) in assets from six defendants standing trial in the PT Asuransi Jiwasraya corruption and money laundering case.
The defendants include former Jiwasraya president director Hendrisman Rahim and two other former Jiwasraya executives – who are all accused of mismanaging premium revenue from the JS Saving Plan, one of Jiwasraya’s insurance products, by investing it in multiple assets. Three other defendants are executives of three different companies, including a publicly listed property firm, who are accused of manipulating Jiwasraya’s investment for personal gain.
The alleged investment mismanagement resulted in the company's failure to pay out Rp 16 trillion in matured policies due in February to its policyholders.
The assets seized from the defendants range from cash, mutual funds, land to apartment units – all collected by investigators since the beginning of their probe on Dec. 17, assistant attorney general for general crimes Ali Mukartono said.
Ali said the total value of the seized assets had exceeded the Rp 16.81 trillion in state losses incurred by Jiwasraya’s investment mismanagement as audited by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) from 2008 to 2018.
“We are trying our best to restore state losses caused by the [investment] mismanagement,” Ali said during a hearing with the House of Representatives Commission III overseeing legal affairs on Thursday.
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker Trimedya Panjaitan applauded what he called progress in the AGO's investigation.
The AGO named last week 13 new suspects in the case -- all investment management companies -- for allegedly helping the six defendants launder the premium revenue collected by Jiwasraya from 2014 to 2018.
It has also named a Financial Services Authority (OJK) official, identified as FH, a suspect in the case. He is suspected of abuse of power, which is believed to have paved the way for Jiwasraya's investment mismanagement during FH’s tenure as OJK department head of capital market monitoring from 2014 to 2017.
Trimedya, however, suggested that the AGO also examine the liquidity of the assets so that it could easily convert them into cash to restore state losses.
“Imagine if some of the land has been used by the defendants as collateral to get loans from banks. It would be really hard to convert them into cash,” he said.
NasDem Party lawmaker Taufik Basari said the AGO should not only try to restore the state losses but also find a way to return all premiums that had been paid by JS Saving Plan policyholders.
