Oil tycoon Riza Chalid named suspect in Pertamina corruption case
T
he Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has named oil tycoon Muhammad Riza Chalid a suspect in a corruption case pertaining to fuel imports at subsidiaries of state-owned oil and gas giant Pertamina that incurred trillions in state losses.
Investigators at the Office of the Assistant Attorney General for Extraordinary Crimes (Jampidsus) found enough evidence to name the businessman a suspect amid their investigation into the case in which seven suspects were arrested in February.
Among the suspects previously arrested by the AGO was Riza’s son Kerry Adrianto, a beneficial owner of a private oil and gas shipping company.
Riza, identified as the beneficial owner of PT Tangki Merak and PT Orbit Terminal Merak (OTM), allegedly agreed on a deal with Pertamina to lease the Merak fuel terminal in Banten at a time when the state oil and gas company did not require additional storage.
He allegedly did so by intervening in Pertamina’s governance policy, scrapped the Merak fuel terminal’s asset ownership scheme in the contract and inflated its value, AGO spokesperson Harli Siregar said during a press briefing on Thursday.
Investigators suspect that Riza conspired with then Pertamina supply and distribution vice president Alfian Nasution and marketing and trading director Hanung Budya and OTM president director Gading Ramadhan Joedo; the latter has been in AGO custody since February.
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View More NewsletterRiza, Alfian and Hanung were among nine suspects named by the AGO on Thursday for allegedly causing state losses of up to Rp 285 trillion (US$17 billion) through irregularities in fuel trade planning and procurement, product compensation schemes and the below-market sale of non-subsidized diesel to private and state-owned enterprises.