The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 12/27/2010 9:26 PM

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/12/27/bahasyim-says-his-money-came-businesses.html

Money laundering suspect Bahsyim Assafie told the story of how he managed to garner Rp 64 billion (US$7 million) -- an unusually large sum for a mid-level, public official to have -- in his account over the years, on Monday.

“I have worked hard since I was in high school. I've been a taxi driver and [run] businesses, but this is what it’s come to,” he said during his trial in the South Jakarta District Court as quoted by newswire Tempointeraktif.com.

The Financial Transaction Analysis and Report Center (PPATK) detected the unlikely sum in his account, as well as curious activity in his and his family's accounts, in late 2008. The traffic amounted to Rp 963 billion.

Bahasyim was formerly chief of the Jakarta tax office for Koja, North Jakarta, and Palmerah, West Jakarta. He was also employed at the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas).

During the trial, he said that his penchant for business “had existed since I was in high school.”

Bahasyim said his first business was in supplying construction materials, followed by the automobile trade, from 1974 to the 1990s.

He said that in the 1970s he opened a photo studio which thrived and established three branches before he sold them.

Bahasyim said his other ventures included importing electronics from Singapore, real estate and construction enterprises, and a plumbing business.

After he worked in the tax office, he partnered with a woman named Aida Tirtayasa, who introduced him to Lu Ji Han, a businessman from the Philippines.

Bahasyim said that he invested with Lu Ji Han in a spa, massage and karaoke business in the Philippines. This commercial attempt collapsed in 1998 but was revived three years later, lasting until 2006, and sending him as much as US$70,000 a month in profit.

He said he also invested in beauty products in Guangzhou, China. “The profit [of that business] reaches Rp 1 billion a month,” he said