GAYUS TAMBUNAN CASE

Forensic Accounting and Fraud Investigation

Student A

Student B

FACULTY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS

UNIVERSITAS GADJAH MADA

YOGYAKARTA

2015/2016

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CASE OVERVIEW

Gayus Halomoan Tambunan was a merely mid-level tax official, charged with

pocketing at least $2.7 million from various big companies. He confessed to having helped

powerful firms evade taxes, paying prosecutors and police officials, and relieving his stress by

leaving his jail cell to watch an international tennis tournament in Bali.

The case began when there was a suspicion against him, despite being a mid-level tax

official and making a merely Rp 1.6 million/month, he was reportedly owning millions of

dollars in cash and assets. There was cash amounting to 25 billion rupiah in his bank account,

foreign money amounting to 60 billion rupiah and jewelry as much as 14 billion in the deposit

box with the account name of his wife and those are suspected to be illegal assets and cash.

He was later sentenced to twelve years in prison, which was far less than the 30 years

being sought and he was also fined 500 million rupiah. He was indicated with five cases: tax

mafia for his involvement in dealing with appeals of large tax payers; judicial mafia for bribing

police investigators and judges; conducting money laundering and giving false information.

Many analysts criticized this result of Gayus H. Tambunan case as it is speculated that

it was led by the grafted police and attorney-general’s office rather than a highly regarding

and independent Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) as his imprisonment sentence is

far less than the maximum jail sentence sought.

There are two important problems entailed in this case: taxation and judicial mafia,

referring to the alleged illicit practices in the tax office and bribery of officials to avoid

conviction on graft charges in 2009. However, none of those problems in this case have been

brought to justice properly as he later admitted he had escaped prison at least 68 times by

bribing the prison guards.

He was found guilty of bribing his way out of charges and imprisonment, including his

domestic and overseas trips using fake passport while he was supposed to be in prison. It

demonstrates that even in detention the wealthy can evade punishment.

Gayus H. Tambunan case exposed a deep flaw in the Indonesian legal system as he

conducted a tremendously harming loss for the Indonesian society and thus, the public lost

their trusts to the government and judiciary system in Indonesia. This case is one of many

examples that corruption and bribery has become a culture in the tax office and this shows

that the reformation process pursued in the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s presidency that

focused on anti-graft/corruption reformation system was far from finished.

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CASE TIMELINE

Time Events

September 1st, 2007 PPATK found suspicious transaction amounted to Rp 370 million in

Gayus’ BCA account and Rp 25 billion in Gayus’ Panin Bank

accounts. The source of the Rp 370 Million fund was later

discovered from PT. Mega Cipta Jaya

June 1st, 2008 -

February 16th, 2009

Based on Gayus’ testimony, he claimed that during this period he

made an investment deal with his friend, Andi Kosasih. The deal

requires Andi Kosasih to pay US$ 6 Million to acquire a land.

However Andi Kosasih was only able to give US$ 2.810.000.

September 27th, 2009 The truth is that Gayus H. Tambunan along with Andi Kosasih and

Police General Commissionaire Arafat Enanie met up in Hotel KC

twoce to create documents and scenario mentioned before

October 7th, 2009

Police officially stated Gayus H. Tambunan as perpetrators and

begin case investigation.

- Gayus was scheduled to be sentenced with three allegations:

corruption, money laundering, and embezzlement. His

positions as a civil employee strengthen the allegations.

- However, the allegations backfire when prosecutor’s

investigation and PPATK stated otherwise.

- Fortunately he is still charged for embezzlement amounted

Rp 370 million from PT Mega Cipta Jaya. He was charged for

1 year imprisonment and 1 year probation.

March 13th 2010 The court sentenced him free of charge because he did not take the

money nor proven to take care of its tax. The status of PT Mega

Cipta Jaya was also unclear therefore evidence was invalid.

Prosecutors were only able to confiscate the money.

The investigation of Rp 25 billion in Gayus’ account was secretly

still ongoing.

March 24th, 2010

Gayus was known to be in Singapore and went there through

Soekarno-Hatta Airport. However immigration was unaware of his

whereabouts.

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March 30th, 2010

Police successfully detected Gayus whereabouts in Singapore and

brought him back to Indonesia.

November 5th, 2010

Gayus was spotted attending Commonwealth Tennis World

Championship. A reporter caught him on camera.

November 15th, 2010 During his trial, Gayus admitted that he was indeed in Bali.

January 14th, 2011 Police announced that they have obtained evidences related to his

illegal travels as well as official report of 151 companies that have

dealt with Gayus to ‘take care’ of their tax liabilities to the police

from Ministry of Finance.

January 20th 2011 Gayus was finally sentenced to 7 years imprisonment and Rp 300

million fines for corruption, embezzlement, money laundering, and

falsifying documents. The suspicious Rp 25 million in his account

was proven to ‘take care’ of PT Surya Alam Tunggal tax liabilities.

April 29th 2011 Gayus’ sentence was increased to 10 years imprisonment and Rp

500 million fines after prosecutors appeal to the high court.

July 28th 2011 Gayus’ sentence was increased again to 12 years imprisonment and

Rp 500 million fines after Supreme Court rejected his appeal.

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CASE FLOWCHART

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THE PERPETRATORS

Gayus Halomoan Tambunan

Gayus was the former mid-level tax official in Direktorat

Jenderal Pajak, Kementrian Keuangan Indonesia. He was

allegedly conducting corruption and taxation mafia bribery.

On January 19, 2011, he has been proved guilty and

sentenced twelve years of imprisonment and fined 500

million rupiah.

Andi Kosasih

Andi Kosasih is a friend of Gayus who was allegedly giving a

false statement about claiming that the money amounting to 25

billion rupiah in Gayus’ bank account was actually his money.

However, this was not true as the money was actually the

embezzlement money from Gayus’ corruption case. As a result,

he was sentenced six years in jail and fined four billion rupiah.

Arafat Enanie

Arafat Enanie was a police investigator, indicted

for his involvement in the Gayus case and thus,

faced five years jail sentence. The court has also

asked Arafat to pay fines of Rp150 million. The

State Prosecutors accused Arafat to have received

money in relation to money laundering and

corruption. He is accused to have received Rp2

million, US$2,500 and US$3,500 separately from the Gayus so that the punishment for

Gayus can be reduced.

Cirus Sinaga

Cirus Sinaga was the prosecutor of Gayus case

and he was allegedly involved in manipulating

the case files of Gayus in cases of tax PT Surya

Alam Tunggal in early 2010. He was proven to

obstruct the case investigation. As reported by

police investigators, Gayus was alleged of conducting corruption and money

laundering. However, Cirus only charged Gayus for corruption act. Thus, he was

imprisoned for five years and fired from his occupation as prosecutor.

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RELATED LAWS OR REGULATIONS

Article 2, verse (1), Article 18 of the Law Number 20 Year 2001

Gayus was allegedly acting against the law, enriching oneself or others or a corporation

that caused losses to the State by conducting the corruption and money embezzlement.

Article 6 verse (1) letter (a) of the Law Number 20 Year 2001

He gave or promised to give something that could influence the judge’s decision or

verdict so that the assigned punishment (years of imprisonment and amount of fine)

could be reduced.

Article 55 verse (1) of the Criminal Law (Article 56 KUHP)

Gayus helped many powerful companies evading the tax liability and as a reward, he

received an amount of bribe money.

Article 22 and 28 of the Law Number 31 Year 1999

Gayus gave misleading or false information while being questioned by the judge

regarding the origin of his wealth valued at Rp 25 billion. According to the judge, the

money is a result of criminal acts of corruption during his work as tax official.

Article 55 letter (a) and (c) of the Law Number 9 Year 1992

Gayus was alleged under these laws for making a falsified passport by the name of

Sony Laksono to make a way out overseas and going out of the prison while he was

supposed to serve his time in jail.

CASE EVIDENCES

- The money amounted to Rp 25 milliar in Gayus’ account was suspected by PPATK as

the corrupted money. At first, Gayus admitted that it was his investment deal with Andi

Kosasih. There were a written agreement regarding the deal was made for both of

them signed in May 25th 2008 and six receipts of investment transaction were also

found. However, the evidences turned out to be falsified and the suspicion might be

true.

- Police investigator confiscates suspicious transactions in Gayus’ account from:

o PT. Metropolitan Retailment, Roberto Santonius, amounted to Rp 925 million

o PT. Mega Jaya Citra Termindo, amounted Rp 370 million.

- Police announced that they have gathered enough evidence to support allegation

against Gayus. It includes evidences related to his fake passport and its travel

documents.

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ADDITIONAL IMPORTANT ASPECTS

Gayus H. Tambunan case involved various parties, such as police, lawyer, judge,

prosecutor, and many people with power. In this case, his fraudulent acts included corruption,

money laundering and embezzlement. Gayus had stirred anger in the public’s eyes as he was

photographed in Bali watching a tennis tournament when he was supposed to be in custody

for his fraudulent acts. He mentioned that he was in need of a holiday after feeling “stressed

out” in the prison. In addition, he also took many vacations and trips overseas using fake

passports obtained from the immigration office.

Gayus attempted to cooperate with the police to become a whistle-blower and expose

the corruption in almost all aspect of the Indonesian judiciary system, especially in the

Indonesia taxation system. He mentioned that the legal system mafia task force in Indonesia

hasn’t been efficient at all, as it didn’t investigate the high-level officials and instead

politicized the issue of middle to low-level officials.

Gayus was supposed to be sentenced to article 3 verse (1) of the Law Number 25 Year

2003 regarding the money laundering, as reported by PPATK (Pusat Pelaporan dan Analisa

Transaksi Keuangan). However, by the help of Cirus Sinaga, Gayus was only sentenced the law

of corruption and thus, freed from the law of money laundering. Moreover, the investigators

also faced some difficulties in finding out the source of cash and assets owned by Gayus as

there was no further improvement of this issue. Gayus failed to prove his wealth of 925

million rupiah and failed to report the gratification amounting to US$ 659.800 and SG$ 9,6

million. Therefore, he was suspected to also conduct money laundering.

In subsequent testimony, he admitted giving and taking bribes, and implicated

prominent companies and officials including from Aburizal Bakrie, chairman of Golkar, the

country second biggest political party. Local media have reported that Gayus handled the tax

claims of about 150 companies, including three controlled by the Bakrie family. However,

Bakrie and his firms have denied any wrongdoing.

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SUMMARY

The undercover of Gayus H. Tambunan, the mid-level tax officer going in and out of his

Jakarta detention cell during five months under police custody, illustrates that justice and

freedom are commodities that can be had in this country, for the right amount of money.

There are two effects of his fraudulent act: loss of money that is ought to be used to build

public facility, thus the society did not got their rights and damage of our state prestige and

image internationally.

It can be concluded from this case that corruption is the worst act in the world. It can

be said that the corruption is the act of impairing integrity, virtue, or moral principle. The act

of corruption can be clearly depicted from Gayus H. Tambunan case as he was able to utilize

his money to bribe the jail guards and buy the powers from higher tax-officials to help many

powerful firms evading their tax liability.

REFERENCES

http://www.academia.edu/8745390/Analisis-kasus-gayus-tambunan

https://anggidetyas.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/corruption-in-indonesia/

http://news.detik.com/berita/1324700/mengendus-jejak-andi-kosasih-di-kasus-markus-

pajak-rp-25-m