Akil used driver’s name to buy Mercedes­Benz

JAKARTA. Witness testimonies at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Thursday revealed that graft and money­ laundering suspect, disgraced former Constitutional Court chief justice Akil Mochtar, laundered his ill-­gotten gains through the purchase of two luxury cars, registered under his driver’s name.

One of the witnesses, Budi Susilo, a staffer at a car dealership, said Akil’s driver, Daryono, bought a Rp 2.1 billion (US$187,707) Mercedes-­Benz from his office. “That model is the second most­-expensive Mercedes-­Benz in Indonesia,” Budi said in court on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Jatmiko, the owner of another car dealership, said Akil sent Daryono to his office to buy a Toyota Crown Athlete worth Rp 1.3 billion. He added that Daryono bought the car in September last year with cash he was carrying inside a box.

“As we could not manually count such a huge amount of cash, we directly took the money to a nearby bank, where staff counted it and arranged a cash transfer to our bank account,” Jatmiko said. Both Budi and Jatmiko said the two cars were registered under Daryono’s name.

“I realized Pak Akil was the person who had purchased the car after his case made headlines,” Jatmiko said.

Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors have accused Akil of reaping Rp 57 billion from accepting bribes on rulings of 10 disputed elections and laundering a total of Rp 180 billion — Rp 160 billion during his term at the court and Rp 20 billion while he was a lawmaker at the House of Representatives.

Akil was caught red-­handed by the KPK accepting cash from Gunung Mas regent Hambit Bintih via a middleman in Jakarta on Oct. 3, 2013, in relation to a local election dispute being adjudicated at the Constitutional Court.