Jakarta (The Jakarta Post/ANN) - Junior Indonesian taxman Dhana Widyatmika attended the opening sessions of his trial yesterday, during which prosecutors indicted him on multiple felony charges, including accepting bribes and money laundering.
Prosecutors for the Attorney General's Office sought the maximum punishment of life in prison and a 1 billion rupiah (US$107,000) fine.
¿The defendant has been proven to have received 2.75 billion rupiah ($291,500) in bribes from Herly Isdiharsono and Rudi Kurniawan, respectively," chief prosecutor Wismantanu said in his indictment at the Jakarta Corruption Court yesterday.
Widyatmika allegedly used the bribes to buy properties, cars and jewelry, and is claimed to have kept money on behalf of other graft suspects in numerous bank accounts and used it to make business investments.
¿We have solid evidence to prove that Dhana [Widyatmika] has been collecting fortunes that we suspect came from illicit sources because of his standing as junior taxman," Wismantanu said.
In the indictment, prosecutors also said that in 2011, Widyatmika made 129.2 million rupiah ($13,695) in annual income as a tax officer.
The AGO named him suspect in the case in February, based on reports from the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, which revealed that he had deposited 28 billion rupiah ($2.96 million) and $250,000 in a total of 18 banks.
The prosecutors also accused Widyatmika and his colleague, Salman Maghfiron, to have inflicted 1.27 billion rupiah ($134,620) in state losses that occurred as a direct result of his team's skewed tax calculations.
Although Widyatmika refused to comment on the charges leveled against him, his lawyer, Luthfie Hakim, said the prosecutors¿ indictment clearly showed that prosecutors did not have a solid case.
¿The prosecutors have repeatedly mentioned that Dhana [Widyatmika] has practiced money laundering to cover up where the money came from, which is allegedly from graft. However, the prosecutors don¿t have the answer on how much money had been laundered by Dhana [Widyatmika] up to this date," he said.
