Ezra Sihite, Rizky Amelia, Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Arientha Primanita – More politicians and businesspeople look likely to be formally implicated in graft cases involving Angelina Sondakh as the Corruption Eradication Commission investigates money transfers to and from her accounts.
The Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) submitted on Saturday the names of seven people who received money from Angelina's accounts to the antigraft body, known as the KPK.
"Our investigators are now verifying the names. Some may have been confirmed by now, we will know soon," KPK spokesman Johan Budi said on Sunday.
Additionally, he said, the KPK found that from March to October 2010, there were 16 transfers involving billions of rupiah from several different people to accounts owned by Angelina, the beauty queen turned lawmaker at the center of some high-profile graft scandals involving the ruling Democratic Party.
PPATK head Muhammad Yusuf said on Saturday that the center's analysis of Angelina's bank records had uncovered seven people who had received money transfers from Angelina. He declined to disclose the names, but said the information had been reported to the KPK. "The KPK is still handling the case. I don't want to comment," he said.
Yusuf also would not say if any of the people were lawmakers in the House of Representatives, as is Angelina, a former deputy secretary general of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democrats.
According to Yusuf, the KPK might be able to charge Angelina and the seven other people under both the anti-money laundering and anti-corruption laws.
Angelina, 34, who was Miss Indonesia in 2001, was named a suspect by the KPK in February for allegedly receiving bribes in the Rp 198 billion ($21.6 million) construction of an athletes' village in Palembang, South Sumatra, for last year's Southeast Asian Games.
During the trial of the Democrats' former treasurer, Muhammad Nazaruddin, several witnesses testified that Angelina had received Rp 2 billion from Nazaruddin's Permai Group.
Nazaruddin was recently found guilty and sentenced to four years and 10 months in prison by the Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court for his role in the scandal.
Angelina was arrested last week after being implicated in a second case, this on involving an Education Ministry lab equipment procurement project for several universities. The project involved 16 state universities across the country and Rp 600 billion in public funds.
At the time of both alleged crimes, Angelina was a member of the House Budget Committee, which approves allocations for the state budget.
Oce Madril, from Gadjah Mada University's Center for Anti-Corruption Studies in Yogyakarta, urged the KPK to use both the anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws to expand its probe.
"By using the combination of both laws, the KPK could root out Angelina's network, either government officials, politicians or businesspeople," he said in Jakarta on Saturday.
According to Oce, if Angelina cooperated, many more people would be implicated in both the SEA Games and Education Ministry scandals. "The KPK should not hesitate to investigate politically wired figures if it has strong preliminary evidence," he said.