Anas Charged With Money Laundering as KPK Investigation Gains Steam

Jakarta Globe, Rizky Amelia, 5 March 2014

Former Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum leaves the Jakarta
Anticorruption Court in this file photo. (JG Photo/Yudhi Sukma Wijaya)

Jakarta. The Corruption Eradication Commission’s (KPK ) case against Anas Urbaningrum mounted on Wednesday as the antigraft body charged the ousted Democratic Party official with money laundering, opening the door for a wider investigation into corruption allegations centered on the one-time chair of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s ruling party.

“There are allegations of money laundering concerning Anas Urbaningrum,” KPK Deputy Chairman Bambang Widjojanto said.

The charge, a significant move by the KPK, will allow investigators to track down and seize any assets allegedly purchased by Anas with graft funds. It will also task the antigraft body with compiling a comprehensive report of the former politician’s wealth and financial transactions, painting a clearer picture of the corruption suspect’s activities during his years with the Democratic Party.

“Investigators have found sufficient evidence and named Anas a suspect in a money laundering case,” KPK spokesman Johan Budi said.

The antigraft commission has suspicions that Anas was corrupt for years before his arrest, admitting that it is entirely possible that he began laundering graft funds as far back as 2002.

“It’s possible,” Johan said.

The KPK detained Anas on Jan. 10 on corruption charges stemming form allegations of his involvement in the graft-tainted Hambalang sports center construction project. The arrest brought to a close an extended standoff between the KPK and the corruption suspect, marking a significant step in the antigraft body’s investigation into allegations of widespread corruption among members of Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party.

But in the two months that followed Anas has made repeated efforts to both derail the investigation and court public sympathy. He complained of a toothache in an attempt to postpone questioning by KPK investigators. Less than a week later Anas was talking again, telling reporters outside the KPK’s South Jakarta headquarters that he was prepared to implicate the president’s son Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono — popularly known as Ibas — in the Hambalang corruption scandal.

Some two weeks later, Anas was uncooperative again. He returned to the KPK’s interrogation room on Feb. 21 where he spent hours before investigators but could only talk about one thing: his throbbing tooth.

Throughout the investigation Anas and his association of loyalists, the Indonesia Movement Association (PPI), have maintained his innocence. The KPK’s investigation is ongoing.

“We’re still tracing his assets, but we haven’t confiscated anything yet,” Johan said.