A hearing on the beef import bribery case late on Thursday revealed that former Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) chairman Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq had tried to hide his ill-gotten money in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), known as a tax haven for wealthy Indonesians. The attempt was revealed as the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors played two taped recordings of phone conversations in early 2013 between Luhfi and a mysterious man suspected to have assisted Luthfi in hiding his assets. During the conversation, the mysterious man explained to Luthfi about the benefits of storing his money in the BVI. “The benefit of [storing money in] the BVI is that there is no need to pay corporate income tax,” the man said in the recording played during the hearing at the Jakarta Corruption Court in Kuningan, South Jakarta. There is, however, a requirement that has to be met before someone can hide their money in BVI, according to him. “The Hong Kong government and the banks in Hong Kong have regulations about the origin of money. One, a document is required on the origin of the money as well as [documentation on] whether it is a personal saving or cash flow from a company,” the man said. During the conversation, Luthfi spoke very little and was mainly listening to the explanations from the man, whom he called “doctor”. He claimed that he only wanted to know more about the BVI after hearing that there were some politicians who hid their money there. According to a report released this year, some of the country’s richest people and top firms use tax havens to avoid taxes, a practice that has been going on since the days of the New Order regime, causing trillions of rupiah in state losses. “I was only interested because there were some politicians who frequently went there. So I asked for information on what [the situation was like there],” Luthfi said. He also said that he was not trying make use of the information. “[It has] nothing to do with me wanting to store something. I was just looking for information on the circumstances [there]. I asked a businessman who had knowledge regarding the matter,” said Luthfi. When asked by the prosecutors on the identity of the man, Luthfi said that he did not remember his identity. “I do not remember who talked [to me],” he said. After the prosecutors pressed him, Luthfi finally said that he was a businessman of Chinese-descent who had a mining trade business with China. “He has a Chinese name so I can’t really remember,” he said. While Luthfi claimed that he did not remember the name of the man he consulted, it was known that the mobile phone number that was used to contact Luthfi belonged to Lukas Budi Andrianto. Lukas is the CEO of mineral trading company PT Gebe Nikindo who graduated from Gadjah Mada University medical school. During its investigation into Luthfi’s money laundering case, the KPK had confiscated five houses purchased by Luthfi using funds that were allegedly obtained illegally. Three of the houses are located in a 4,000-square-meter housing complex near Jl. Batu Ampar in Condet, East Jakarta, while the fourth is a 900-square-meter house located at Jl. Hj. Samali No. 27 in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta. The last one is a 440-square-meter house on Jl. Kebagusan Dalam I No. 44 in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta. Besides the houses, the KPK had also seized two pieces of land belonging to Luthfi in West Java. The first one is a 5.9 hectare plot of land located in Barengkok village in Bogor valued at Rp 3.5 billion (US$299,273) in 2008. The second one is a plot of land worth Rp 750 million in Cianjur and is suspected to have been purchased from PKS religious council leader Hilmi Aminuddin. Nine of Luthfi’s cars had also been confiscated.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 07:22:10 +0000
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