Imanuddin Razak, Jakarta – After a four-month delay the Attorney General's Office (AGO) announced Thursday it would file charges against a foundation belonging to former president Soeharto for alleged funding discrepancies.
Junior attorney general for civil and state administrative crimes, Alex Tobiya, said the charges would be filed with the South Jakarta District Court before July 22 – the AGO's anniversary. "Initially, we will file the charges against the Supersemar foundation, with other foundations to follow," Alex told a media conference.
Director for civil cases at the office of the junior attorney general for civil and state administrative crimes, Yoseph Suardi Sabda, and AGO spokesman Salman Maryadi were also present at the conference.
Alex said the Supersemar foundation had been targeted as the first case against the former president because they had secured President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's approval to investigate the foundation.
The AGO will seek the court's approval to seize all of the foundation's assets. "We will also seek compensation for losses that the foundation allegedly inflicted on the state – totaling Rp 11.5 trillion (US$1.3 billion)."
The plan to go after Soeharto's Supersemar foundation was initiated by former attorney general Abdul Rahman Saleh in January. But the plan remained on paper until Abdul Rahman was replaced by Hendarman Supandji in a Cabinet reshuffle earlier this month.
Soeharto founded the Supersemar foundation, through a government regulation in 1976. It collected donations from businesspeople and others to provide scholarships for students. Almost 800,000 scholarships have been awarded by the foundation but, as it is a private foundation, its books have never been opened to the public.
Alex said the AGO had not been able to calculate the total assets of the foundation that would be seized. "A plot of land in Kuningan area (South Jakarta), where the Granadi building is situated, is one asset."
He said prosecutors were having trouble identifying the foundation's assets because several had been transferred to different companies.
"We have evidence of transfers, which amounted to Rp 1 trillion, Rp 400 billion and Rp 8 billion... among others to Kosgoro (cooperatives), Goro (a wholesale firm) and Sempati Air," he said.
Meanwhile, a British Court on Wednesday extended the freeze on the account of Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra at the Guernsey office of Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP). Alex said the court's decision would give the Attorney General's Office more time to build a corruption case against the youngest son of Soeharto.
"The court's verdict will give us more time to collect evidence and build our case against Tommy. We will file a civil suit against Tommy within the next three months." "If we win the civil suit, it will be used as evidence in the Guernsey Court trial, where the court is expected to declare the status of Tommy's money at the French bank."