Ex-Sports Minister’s Brother Accepted Half a Million Dollars, Can’t Explain Why

Jakarta Globe, January 22, 2014

Andi Zulkarnaen Anwar Mallarangeng reportedly accepted a half million
dollars but doesn’t know why. (JG Photo/Afriadi Hikmal)

“Mistakes, we all make them,” was how the brother of a former sports minister explained how he had “accidentally” accepted more than half a million dollars in cash, given to him for no discernible reason at all, at his house in August, 2010.

“No one asked for the money as a kickback,” Andi Zulkarnaen Anwar Mallarangeng, the brother of former sport minister and corruption suspect Andi Alfian Mallarangeng, said during a hearing at Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court on Tuesday. “I realized the next day when I opened it.”

The brother, who goes by “Choel,” was appearing as a witness in the trial of Deddy Kusdinar, the former finance director of the sports ministry and a suspect in one of Indonesia’s more praetorian corruption cases.

“I admit I received $550,000,” he said. “My unintentional mistake was that I never talked about it with my brother, and the case later dragged him [to prison],” he said.

Andi Alfian Mallarangeng was arrested by the KPK on Oct. 17. He denies all wrongdoing.

Choel said he had not told his brother about the extraordinary amount of cash until after Andi had resigned and was named a graft suspect by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

“My mistake became his,” Choel said. “My brother is an honest man.”

The KPK takes an alternative view.

The unfinished construction of Hambalang sports complex in Sentul,
West Java. (JG Photo/Jurnasyanto Sukarno)

In a report submitted last October, the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) listed six instances of irregularities, or non-compliance of prevailing regulations in the Hambalang sports center construction project, which resulted in a total of Rp 471 billion ($40 million) in losses to the state — up from the initial estimate of Rp 243 billion.

Hambalang was intended to be a training center for Indonesia’s elite athletes — a promising might-have-been piece of government-funded sports infrastructure for a country that continues to punch well below its weight in international sport, save for a few bright spots, such as badminton, boxing, surfing and weightlifting. Today the sorry state of affairs that would have been something positive for Indonesian sport lies half-finished, blighting the West Java landscape.

The project has brought down some key figures in the Democratic Party, including former part chair Anas Urbaningrum and Andi. Both men have been charged: both men deny the charges, and neither has been convicted. Former state-owned construction firm director Teuku Bagus Mokhamad Noor and Deddy are the two other suspects named so far.

The prosecutor in Deddy’s trial alleges that Choel met with Wafid Muharam, a bag man at the sports ministry, to arrange for a kickback from state-owned construction firm, Adhi Karya.

“During the meeting, [Andi Zulkarnaen] said his elder brother Andi Mallarangeng had been serving [as sports minister] for a year but hadn’t received anything,” Prosecutor I Kadek Wiradana said.

Choel later met with Wafid, Deddy, Fakhruddin and Muhammad Arief Taufiqurrahman, another executive with Adhi Karya, Kadek alleges.

Choel does not deny that $550,000 turned up in a package at his house a few weeks later. How and why it got there, however, is anyone’s guess, he says.

“Up until [Tuesday], I didn’t know what the money was for,” he told the court.

The trial continues.