INDONESIAN PROBERS RAID 20 SITES OVER LIPPO GROUP BRIBERY CASE
JAKARTA— Indonesian authorities said on Thursday it had raided 10 locations, including the home of Lippo Group deputy chair James Riady, as part of a bribery probe of the $21-billion Meikarta real estate project in Jakarta.
The raids were conducted after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), arrested two Lippo Group consultants and an employee over purported bribes for Meikarta’s property permits.
‘Shenzhen of Indonesia’
Billed as the “Shenzhen of Indonesia,” Meikarta is Lippo’s largest project to date and is meant to be a center for the automotive and electronic industries.
Febri Diansyah, a spokesperson for the KPK, said in a text message its investigators had seized financial documents and computers during the raids.
The raids targeted the home of Riady, a Lippo Group office and the home and offices of top local government official Neneng Hasanah Yasin, one of nine suspects arrested by the KPK this week.
Yasin, Riady and other representatives of Lippo Group did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
The KPK said Lippo employees detained this week said they had been acting on instructions from Lippo director Billy Sindoro to bribe Yasin, whowas the regent for West Java’s Bekasi area where the Meikarta project was located.
Sindoro has also been arrested, as well as four other public servants.
Lawyers for Sindoro and Yasin have not responded to requests for comment.
Investigators have confiscated $33,772 in rupiahs and $65,378, which they said were intended as bribes and suspect other instances of corruption.
Meikarta reaction
Meikarta lawyers told Reuters there was no tolerance for corruption at the company and pledged to cooperate with the KPK investigators.
Lippo Group shares have dropped since the investigation was made public.
Meikarta had completed residential units and previously told media it had secured 32,000 fixed buyers, some of whom moved in September.