Tommy 'got $15m back with minister's help'

The Straits Times, March 16, 2007
By Devi Asmarani, INDONESIA CORRESPONDENT



POWER ABUSE ALLEGATION IN INDONESIA
Tommy 'got $15m back with minister's help'
Funds frozen by bank returned after Yusril's intervention



SECOND PROBE: State Secretary Yusril is already being investigated for giving a project to a company without a tender.












IN JAKARTA - INDONESIAN State Secretary Yusril Ihza Mahendra, already facing a graft probe, is now under fire for allegedly abusing his position to help 'Tommy' Suharto get hold of US$10 million (S$15 million) in questionable cash.

The latest scandal dates back to 2004, when former president Suharto's son Hutomo Mandala Putra, better known as Tommy, was trying to retrieve US$10 million being held by BNP Paribas bank in London.

The bank was refusing to hand over the funds, owned by Tommy's overseas company Motorbike, as it suspected that it was dirty money.

Mr Yusril, who was Justice Minister at the time, stepped in to declare that the funds were not connected to corruption, and the money was transferred to Tommy.

Observers said the case reeked of abuse of power, not least because Motorbike was being represented by Ihza and Ihza, a law firm owned by Mr Yusril and his brother Yusron Ihza Mahendra.

According to Tempo magazine, Ihza and Ihza earned a US$1 million commission for helping recover the funds.

Although Mr Yusril claims he was no longer active in the firm, he continued to benefit from its profits as a shareholder.

Making matters worse, Tommy was then serving a 15-year jail sentence for ordering the assassination of a judge, and the funds were later transferred through the Justice Ministry's account.

Regardless of Tommy's position at the time, Indonesian Corruption Watch coordinator Teten Masduki said: 'The Justice Ministry has no right to issue a 'free of corruption' guarantee to any institution.'

Mr Teten also said the use of a government account for private benefit violated a 2003 state funds law.

But in an interview with this week's issue of Tempo magazine, Mr Yusril, a former speechwriter for former president Suharto, defended his role in the affair.

He claimed that he did not know his former employer's son personally and said Tommy's criminal conviction had nothing to do with the funds.

He also stressed that his only concern throughout the affair had been to return the money to Indonesia.

'The Paribas Bank wanted to control the money - by recovering it, at least Tommy could use it to return to the racing circuit, or to invest here,' he told the magazine.

The Anti-Corruption Commission has not yet indicated whether it will open an investigation into the case.

Meanwhile, Mr Yusril continues to face an Anti-Corruption Commission probe into a decision by the Justice Ministry during his time there to give an 18.4-billion-rupiah (S$3 million) fingerprint identification system project to a company without going through the proper tender process.

The decision is said to have cost the state about 50 per cent more than it should have paid.

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NO CORRUPTION-FREE GUARANTEE

'The Justice Ministry has no right to issue a 'free of corruption' guarantee to any institution.'

MR TETEN MASDUKI, Indonesian Corruption Watch coordinator, on the help then Justice Minister Yusril provided to get funds transferred to Tommy Suharto.