TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Attorney General's Office arrested the President Director of PT Kebun Tebu Mas (KTM) with initials ASB, a suspect in a sugar import corruption case. He was taken using a prison car to the Attorney General's Office building at 19:40 WIB (Western Indonesian Time) on Wednesday night, February 5, 2025.

Of the 11 suspects in the 2015-2016 sugar import corruption case involving former Minister of Trade Thomas Trikasih Lembong, ASB is the only suspect who has not been detained. Head of the Attorney General's Office's Legal Information Center Harli Siregar confirmed ASB's arrest.

ASB has been named a suspect by the prosecutor's office since January 20, 2025 along with 9 high-ranking officials in nine companies involved in the import of raw crystal sugar to be processed into white crystal sugar. Two other people who were previously named as suspects were Tom Lembong and the Director of Business Development of PT Perusahaan Perdagangan Indonesia 2015-2016 Charles Sitorus.

Eight other company officials who have been named suspects are the President Director of PT Angels Products (AP) TWN, President Director of PT Andalan Furnindo (AF) WN, President Director of PT Sentra Usahatama Jaya (SUJ) HS, President Director of PT Medan Sugar Industri (MSI) IS, Director of PT Makassar Tene TSEP, President Director of PT Berkah Manis Makmur (BMM) HFH and Director of PT Permata Dunia Sukses Utama (PDSU) ES.

The sugar case involving Tom Lembong began with the prosecutor's investigation into the sugar import policy amidst the national sugar surplus in 2015. According to existing regulations, sugar imports should be carried out by a State-Owned Enterprise, namely PT Perusahaan Perdagangan IIndonesia (PPI).

In January 2016, Tom Lembong signed a letter of assignment to PT PPI to fulfill the national sugar stock—around 300,000 tons—through cooperation with local sugar producers.

Furthermore, PPI ordered the above companies to procure raw crystal sugar. The sugar will later be processed into white crystal sugar. The appointment of the private company was with the direct knowledge of Tom Lembong as Minister.

According to investigators, the import approval was issued without a recommendation from the Ministry of Industry and a coordination meeting with related agencies. In fact, in Article 9 of the Regulation of the Minister of Trade Number 117 of 2015, raw crystal sugar may only be processed for industrial needs and cannot be traded to other parties.

After local sugar producers imported raw crystal sugar and processed it into white crystal sugar, they made it seem as if the product was purchased by PT PPI. In fact, the white crystal sugar was sold to the market through affiliated distributors at a price of Rp16,000 per kilogram.

Meanwhile, the highest retail price for white crystal sugar is Rp13,000 per kilogram. PT PPI received a fee from the eight companies of Rp105 per kilogram. Based on calculations by the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP), state losses in the sugar import corruption case reached Rp578 billion.

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