The Jakarta Corruption Court has sentenced businessmen Benny Tjokrosaputro and Heru Hidayat to life in prison for their involvement in a corruption case pertaining to state insurer PT Asuransi Jiwasraya.
The panel of judges said Benny, who served as the president director of PT Hanson International, was found guilty of committing corruption and money laundering that had cost the government at least Rp 16.8 trillion (US$1.1 billion) in state losses.
Benny was charged under articles 2 and 18 of the 2001 Corruption Law and Article 55 of the Criminal Code, as well as Article 33 of Law No. 8/2010 on money laundering prevention.
In addition to the life sentence, Benny was also ordered to pay Rp 5 billion in fines subsidiary to one year in prison, as well as an additional Rp 6 trillion to cover the state losses.
“If the defendant fails to pay the additional cost within a month of the verdict announcement, his assets will be confiscated and put up for auction to cover [the losses],” said presiding judge Rosmina during a hearing on Monday as quoted by kompas.com.
Meanwhile, the judges ordered Heru, the president commissioner of publicly listed mining company PT Trada Alam Minera, to pay Rp 10.7 trillion in restitution in addition to serving lifetime imprisonment.
Earlier this month, the court also sentenced three former Jiwasraya executives – former president director Hendrisman Rahim, former financial director Harry Prasetyo and former finance and investment division head Syahwirman – to life in prison after having been found guilty of corruption.
Jiwasraya was accused of mismanagement when it invested its revenue from premiums for the JS Saving Plan, one of the company’s insurance products, into so-called pump-and-dump stocks. As a result, it failed to pay out Rp 16 trillion (US$1.1 billion) in matured policies due in February to its policyholders. (rfa)
