KPK spokesperson Ali Fikri said on Thursday that investigators had moved to name Rafael as a suspect after they had gathered enough evidence to support their case.

"We can confirm that in relation to our investigation on the tax office, yes we have a suspect," Ali told reporters when asked about the investigation into Rafael's wealth.

He added that Rafael was alleged to have received gratuities between 2011 and 2023, when he served as a tax controller at the Finance Ministry's Taxation Directorate General.

The antigraft body opened its investigation into Rafael's wealth in early March after a criminal case against his son for assault that inadvertently exposed his lavish lifestyle.

The case surrounding Rafael’s wealth emerged after police arrested his 20-year-old son Mario Dandy Satrio on charges of assaulting the 17-year-old son of a member of GP Ansor, the youth wing of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU).

Pictures of Mario showing off his lavish lifestyle proliferated across social media in the ensuing days, which led to deeper public scrutiny of Rafael’s sources of wealth.

The KPK launched an investigation to clarify the sources of Rafael's questionable wealth, which it deemed did not match the typical wealth profile of an echelon III official.

In his wealth report submitted to the KPK in December 2021, Rafael declared a total wealth of Rp 56 billion (US$3.66 million), rivaling that of Finance Minister Sri Mulyani’s Rp 58 billion and surpassing that of Taxation Director General Suryo Utomo, an echelon I official who had declared a wealth of Rp 14 billion.

The KPK first summoned Rafael on March 1 for questioning over the wealth that he and his family had accumulated.

But the antigraft body has since widened its inquiry from merely seeking clarification over his dubious wealth reports, including the 2021 report made its rounds on social media, to tracing the taxman’s sources of wealth.

Soon afterward, the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) froze more than 10 bank accounts suspected of being linked to Rafael, following its separate probe into the unusually large wealth of the middle-ranking taxman.

These included accounts belonging to his personal tax consultants.

The PPATK said it had long detected suspicious transactions connected to Rafael, with the financial intelligence agency first reporting its related analysis in 2012 to the KPK, the Supreme Court and the Finance Ministry’s inspectorate general.

After the scandal broke publicly, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani removed Rafael from his position but rejected his resignation from the civil service, which was not possible while he was the subject of a formal investigation.

Sri Mulyani also urged all tax officials to lead a modest lifestyle and shun ostentatious displays of wealth, warning that doing so could lead to erosion of public trust in the tax office.

Rafael’s case has prompted President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to call on all Cabinet ministers and government agencies to enforce discipline among their ranks. In addition, the President urged the National Police and the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to investigate potential wrongdoings in how officials had obtained their wealth.

“Don’t show off your power. Don't show off your wealth, especially [...] on social media,” the President said earlier this month.

“For members of the bureaucracy, this is really improper [behavior]."

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