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JAKARTA. The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) said on Thursday it had confiscated 17 trucks belonging to an auto shop run by Dhana Widyatmika, a young tax official charged with accepting bribes and gratuities.
“[On Wednesday], our investigators confiscated 17 trucks of various types. The trucks are currently parked in a government warehouse,” AGO spokesperson M Adi Toegarisman said.
AGO special crimes investigators said that the seizure of the assets was necessary as the auto business, set up in Duren Sawit, East Jakarta, was suspected to have been used by Dhana to launder money he collected through illicit means.
Dhana, 38, also runs a retail shop near his home in Cipinang Melayu, East Jakarta, but Adi declined to confirm whether Dhana also used this firm to launder money.
Meanwhile on Thursday, Dhana underwent questioning for the first time. The interrogation lasted eight hours and covered the alleged bribery and gratuity.
Dhana’s lawyer Daniel Alfredo said that his client was only asked about basic information regarding his job.
Head of the special crime division at the AGO Andi Nirwanto said that investigators in the case would also collect information on tax clients handled by the suspect.
Andi, however declined to disclose the identity of Dhana’s clients.
Investigators also questioned Jamaludin, the director of PT Mobilindo 88, Dhana’s auto shop, and
Sofandi Arifin, a staffer at the Finance Ministry’s inspectorate general.
Dhana’s wife, Dian Anggraini, also a tax official, skipped Thursday’s questioning session. Adi said the AGO had arranged a date to question Dian.
Speculation was rife that Dian may have abetted her husband’s alleged illicit activities.
Adi said Dian was only a witness in the case.
Attorney General Basrief Arief said on Thursday that Dhana had been charged under the 2010 Money Laundering Law which carries a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison.
The investigators’ decision to charge Dhana with the law could enable judges to place the burden of proof on Dhana to divulge how he acquired his assets.
Basrief also shrugged off an accusation that investigators in the case had not provided accurate information about Dhana’s bank account numbers and the amount of funds he kept in them.
He said only judges had the authority to disclose such infor-mation.
“Let me get this straight. Information concerning bank accounts is confidential under the law. We are prohibited from disclosing such data,” Basrief told reporters at the State Palace on Thursday.
“Please be patient and wait for our investigation to wrap this up. Once the case is in court, everything about the suspect’s assets will be made public,” he said.
Early reports said that the investigation into Dhana was based on data from the Financial Transaction
Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) that suggested that the suspect had Rp 28 billion (US$3.08 million) and $250,000 deposited in 18 banks.
The AGO, however, later denied it had launched its investigation based on the PPATK reports. PPATK
officials have not commented on Dhana’s case.
Other reports said that the total funds in Dhana’s accounts amounted to Rp 60 billion.
Earlier this week, Dhana’s lawyer Daniel Alfredo said that his client only had five active bank accounts.
The AGO has frozen some of Dhana’s bank accounts.
Meanwhile, the deputy for law at the Presidential Working Unit for Supervision and Management of Development (UKP4), Mas Achmad Santosa, applauded the AGO’s decision to charge Dhana with money laundering.
Mas Achmad, however, said the Money Laundering Law had no provision that would allow for the confiscation of Dhana’s assets.
“Surely it would be better if we had such a law that could handle ill-gotten assets. With such a law, any public officials with a suspicious amount of wealth must prove that their assets are collected from legal sources,” he said. (Bagus BT Saragih, The Jakarta Post)
