President Director of PT Kebun Tebu Mas Suspect in Sugar Import Corruption Found in Jakarta Army Hospital

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Attorney General's Office has detained the President Director of PT Kebun Tebu Mas (KTM) Ali Sanjaya B (ASB) on Wednesday night, February 5, 2025, in connection of a corruption case. He is one of 11 suspects in the sugar import case who have not been arrested.

Head of the Attorney General's Office's Legal Information Center Harli Siregar said that investigators found Ali at the Gatot Soebroto Army Central Hospital (RSPAD) in Jakarta. "We searched for him and found out that he was sick because he fell, he was treated at RSPAD in Jakarta," he said.

Before being arrested, ASB had been named a suspect along with eight high-ranking officials in 8 companies suspected of being involved in corruption in the import of raw crystal sugar to be processed into white crystal sugar. Two other people who were previously named as suspects were former Minister of Trade Tom Lembong and Director of Business Development of PT Perusahaan Perdagangan Indonesia 2015-2016 Charles Sitorus.

After Ali's presence at RSPAD Gatot Soebroto was discovered, the doctor was asked to conduct observation until February 4, 2025. Then the investigators transferred Ali to the Adhiyaksa General Hospital, Jalan Raya Mabes Hankam, Ceger, Cipayung District, East Jakarta. Furthermore, ASB will be detained at the Salemba Detention Center, Attorney General's Office Branch for the next 20 days.

In this case, ASB's role was to submit an application for approval to import 110 thousand tons of raw crystal sugar. The application was approved by Tom Lembong. The application was submitted on June 7, 2016 and approved on June 14, 2016. "The approval was without going through a discussion at the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy coordination meeting," said Harli.

The sugar import approval was also signed without a recommendation from the Ministry of Industry. Whereas as regulated in Article 6 of Trade Ministerial Regulation Number 117 of 2015, the application for import approval can only be made by BUMN that have been appointed by the government.

A similar mechanism was carried out by 8 other top officials of private companies, namely: President Director of PT Angels Products (AP) TWN, President Director of PT Andalan Furnindo (AF) WN, President Director of PT Sentra Usahatama Jaya (SUJ) HS, President Director of PT Medan Sugar Industri (MSI) IS, Director of PT Makassar Tene TSEP, President Director of PT Berkah Manis Makmur (BMM) HFH and Director of PT Permata Dunia Sukses Utama (PDSU) ES.

The difference is that they were appointed directly by the state-owned company, namely PT PPI, to fulfill the national sugar stock of around 300 thousand tons. The appointment was also with the knowledge of Tom Lembong. Similar to the ASB case, the permit approval was issued without a recommendation from the Ministry of Industry and a coordination meeting with related agencies.

After the private company imported raw crystal sugar and processed it into white crystal sugar, they made it seem as if the product was purchased by PT PPI. In fact, the white crystal sugar was sold to the market through affiliated distributors at a price of Rp16,000 per kilogram.

Meanwhile, the highest retail price of white crystal sugar at that time was Rp13,000 per kilogram. PT PPI received a fee from the eight companies of Rp105 per kilogram. Based on calculations by the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP), the state loss in the corruption case reached Rp578 billion.

For his crimes, ASB and 8 other company officials were charged with Article 2 paragraph (1) and Article 3 in conjunction with Article 18 of Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 31 of 1999 as amended by Law Number 20 of 2001 concerning Amendments to Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph (1) ke-1 of the Criminal Code.

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