JAKARTA: The Supreme Court has overturned a lower court ruling that cleared three major palm oil groups of corruption charges linked to permits for crude palm oil (CPO) exports, reinstating their criminal liability and ordering trillions of rupiah in fines and restitutions.
In a ruling read on Sept. 15, the court found palm oil companies Wilmar Group, Permata Hijau Group and Musim Mas Group guilty of corruption when obtaining permits to export CPO and its derivatives in 2022, the year when shipments of such products were restricted due to domestic cooking oil shortage.
The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) suspected the three companies breached the temporary export ban imposed by the administration of then-president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to stabilise local prices during the height of the cooking oil shortage in the country.
Investigators alleged the illegal exports had cost the state around Rp 18 trillion (US$1.07 billion) as the government had to heavily subsidise domestic cooking oil prices to ease the crisis.
AGO prosecutors demanded the Jakarta Corruption Court to sentence the three companies guilty of corruption and order each to pay Rp 1 billion in fines, as well as an additional restitution payment ranging from Rp 900 billion to Rp 11 trillion to compensate for the state losses. But three judges handling the case, namely Agam Syarif Baharuddin, Ali Muhtarom and Djuyamto, cleared the companies of all charges.
Prosecutors later appealed the acquittal with the Supreme Court, following the arrest of the judges in April, who were suspected of receiving at least Rp 60 million in bribes to arrange a favorable verdict for the companies.
“The appeal by the prosecutor is granted”, the justices wrote in a copy of their ruling on the appeal published in the Supreme Court’s website on Thursday (Sept 25). Justices ordered the three companies to pay the Rp 1 billion fine each.
The firms were also ordered to pay for restitutions in various amounts: Wilmar had to pay Rp 11.8 trillion, while Permata Hijau and Musim Mas were required to pay Rp 937 billion and Rp 4.8 trillion, respectively.
In June, Wilmar had paid Rp 11.8 trillion to the AGO, which was later claimed to be the largest amount of money the law enforcement body has ever confiscated in a corruption case. The money came from Wilmar Respondents, the five companies operating under the group which had been Multimas Nabati Asahan, Multi Nabati Sulawesi, Sinar Alam Permai, Wilmar Bioenergi Indonesia and Wilmar Nabati Indonesia.
The AGO then said the money would be included in the list of evidence for the appeal at the Supreme Court. It added the prosecution would demand it be forfeited as a way “to compensate for the state losses the defendant [Wilmar] had caused.”
In their ruling, the Supreme Court justices ordered the AGO to seize the money as compensation and transfer it to the state treasury. Singapore-based Wilmar has maintained its position that its actions were within legal bounds.
“While Wilmar respected the decision of the Indonesian Supreme Court, it maintains that the actions taken by the Wilmar Respondents, during the period of a shortage of cooking oil in the Indonesian market, were done in compliance with prevailing regulations and in good faith,” the company said in a statement on Thursday.
The three judges along with former Central Jakarta District Court deputy head Muhammad Arif Nuryanta are still standing trial for their crimes. Arif, who was serving as court deputy head when the trial against Wilmar started in early 2024, allegedly accepted Rp 60 billion in bribes from lawyers representing the palm oil companies in exchange for a favorable ruling. He allegedly shared the money with Agam, Ali and Djuyamto, the three judges handling the case.
Judges Agam Syarif Baharudin (centre) and Ali Muhatarom (right), who are standing trial for alleged bribery pertaining to the acquittal of palm oil companies in the crude palm oil export case, put on their prisoner vest after a hearing at the Jakarta Corruption Court in Jakarta on Wednesday (Sept 24). - Antara via The Jakarta Post/ANN
Djuyamto allegedly received Rp 6 billion, Ali Rp 5 billion and Agam Rp 4.5 billion. Also arrested in the case were former Central Jakarta District Court clerk Wahyu Gunawan, who allegedly communicated with the lawyers about the bribe; Wilmar Group’s social security legal head Muhammad Syafei who was suspected of providing the bribe money; and lawyers Marcella Santoso and Ariyanto Bakri. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
