Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Legal case brokers claiming to be acting on behalf of the Corruption Eradication Commission have allegedly scammed suspects of antigraft investigations, the commission's interim chairman said on Friday.

"Results of our current investigations have revealed that there are case brokers claiming to be working on behalf of the commission [KPK]," Tumpak Hatorangan Panggabean said following a meeting with members of the presidentially-appointed Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force. He said that those results had been handed over to the task force.

Investigations were launched after Constitutional Court chief Mahfud MD reportedly forwarded to the task force allegations that the KPK had extorted Rp 20 billion ($2.1 million) from a witness.

Since the KPK was established in late 2003, more than 100 people have been arrested for claiming to be officials of the agency in order to extort money.

Denny Indrayana, secretary of the task force, said on Friday that they had accepted the KPK's investigation report in regard to Mahfud's allegations.

"We have asked the KPK to continue their investigations," Denny said, adding that the meeting also featured presentations on how the KPK plans to eradicate possible judicial mafia practices within the commission.

"We will meet with the KPK again this month to discuss developments on a number of issues, including their five programs to prevent judicial mafia practices," he said.

Denny said recently that numerous people had impersonated KPK officials in the past and that he did not rule out the possibility that it was still happening. The task force, he added, would closely examine Mahfud's report before taking any concrete action.

The task force, headed by Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, has met with a number of law-enforcement agencies – including the National Police and the Attorney General's Office – and other state agencies to discuss the judicial mafia problem.

It also has met with officials from the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights Affairs in relation to the task force's unannounced inspection of the Pondok Bambu Women's Penitentiary, where it found certain high-profile inmates, including convicted case broker Artalyta Suryani, enjoying special privileges.

The existence of case brokers was confirmed when the KPK arrested a senior AGO prosecutor, Urip Tri Gunawan, for accepting $660,000 from Artalyta in 2008 in return for stopping a major embezzlement case.

The power and influence of these case brokers was publicly revealed when the KPK was ordered by the Constitutional Court to play 67 wiretapped conversations between a suspected case broker and several law enforcers allegedly involved in a bid to fabricate testimony against two antigraft commission deputies.

The court session was televised and prompted the government to declare the eradication of case brokers a top priority.