The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 07/26/2011 11:51 PM

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/07/26/prosecutors-indict-gayus-bribe-charges-money-laundering.html

Graft convict and former tax official Gayus Tambunan was indicted on Monday for corruption and money laundering charges after his trial at the Corruption Court resumed following a brief adjournment for illness.

Prosecutors charged Gayus with four crimes: accepting bribes, failure to report a gratuity, money laundering and bribing police officers to escape detention.

Under the first charge, according to the indictment, Gayus allegedly accepted Rp 925 million (US$108,225) in bribes from tax consultant Robertus Santonius to influence Gayus’ assessment of a tax objection filed by PT Metropolitan Retailmart. Gayus also allegedly accepted US$3.5 million in bribes from businessman Alif Kuncoro to help process a “sunset” tax policy for PT Kaltim Prima Coal and PT Arutmin.

“The defendant never reported the gratuity he accepted to the Corruption Eradication Commission [KPK],” Uung Abdul Syakur, a prosecutor from the Attorney General’s Office, said while reading the indictment. “Any gift given to a state official as gratuity is perceived as a bribe if it is related to his position and goes against his duty.”

Uung alleged Gayus violated the Article 12 (b) of the 2001 Corruption Law, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years’ imprisonment.

Prosecutors also charged Gayus with offenses relating to accepting gratuities based in part on the small fortune kept in a safe deposit box at a Bank Mandiri branch in Kelapa Gading. “The defendant never reported the US$659,000 and S$9.6 million [$7.95 milllion] kept in the safe deposit box,” Uung said.

The police also found 31 100-gram gold bars in the deposit box, which was registered to Gayus’ wife, Milana Anggraeni.

Gayus failed to report to the KPK any gift given as a gratuity since 2004, according to the indictment. Prosecutors did not disclose the source of Gayus’ money.

The third count of the indictment charged Gayus with money laundering, alleging he gradually secreted away a fortune to avoid arousing the suspicion of law enforcement officers.

“The defendant, in a gradual manner, split the US$3.5 million –some of which was converted into rupiah – and later wired the money to several banks,” Uung said.

The wealth found at the safe deposit box was also used to substantiate the money laundering charge levied on Gayus. “He never told the investigators about the safe deposit box,” Uung said.

Prosecutors also said the disparity between Gayus’ monthly salary of Rp 9.2 million the wealth in the safe deposit box was suspicious.

Under the law, judges can order a reverse burden of proof against Gayus, as did judges during the trial of another corrupt tax official, Bahasyim Assifie, who was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment earlier this year for money laundering and accepting bribes.

Gayus was also charged with bribing Comr. Iwan Siswanto, then warden of the National Police’s Mobile Brigade detention center in Kelapa Dua, to escape pre-verdict detention on more than 60 occasions.

Prosecutors accused him of giving Rp 264 million to Iwan and paying bribes to other guards at the detention center.

Gayus said he did not comprehend the charges. “I don’t understand what they accused me of, your honor.” He added that he would demur, or challenge the legal sufficiency of the indictment.

Hotma Sitompoel, Gayus’ lawyer, asked to read his client’s demurrer immediately after the indictment.

“We would like to demur right away because we don’t want to lose the momentum,” Hotma said. “We are afraid that the media and the public might try him outside the court if we did not demur now.”

According to the demurrer read to the court “It would be unfair for Gayus if he must be tried by the press through the publications that corner him because some actors claimed to be experts made some speculations on the case.”