The youngest son of the late former President Soeharto, Hutomo Mandala Putra a.k.a Tommy, has once again beaten the Indonesian government’s efforts to recover money that the state lost from the national car project during the last years of Soeharto’s reign.
According to Kompas, last Wednesday the District Court of Central Jakarta has rejected a lawsuit filed by the government against Tommy on charges of selling the assets of his “Timor “national car project to his own company. The judges said that the Prosecutors have failed to provide sufficient evidence to back out said lawsuit.
The Jakarta Post reported that the case started in 1999 when the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (a.k.a BPPN) took over the assets of Tommy’s national car company, PT. Timor Putra Nasional, as collateral for outstanding debt of Rp 4 trillion to the state. Later on, IBRA sold the said assets to Tommy’s other company PT. Vista Bella for only Rp. 445 billion, thus giving Tommy a Rp. 4 trillion gain from the sale.
This court’s verdict shows once again that our Attorney General Office seems to be weak in prosecuting Tommy. The irony is that Tommy has escaped prison for one year without being punished. Instead of getting more prison term, he got reduction.
2 comments:
As in any other legal cases which involves powerful people, I think it's not Tommy who is powerful, but it is the law enforcement agencies who are weak.
Hi Joni,
That's what many people say.
Thank you for your comment.
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