On Tuesday (December 8), the Commission's Investigation Team conducted a forced search of the private home and official residence of Batubara as a suspect in addition to two company offices suspected of collaborating with the Ministry of Social Affairs in distributing social assistance packages.
"The items found and secured include various documents related to the case," acting spokesman of the KPK Ali Fikri noted in a statement received in Jakarta, Thursday.
An initial analysis will be conducted of the documents and immediately be confiscated.
The anti-graft body also secured several documents discovered during a search at the Ministry of Social Affairs Building, Jakarta, as well as two houses of the suspects: Commitment Making Officer (PPK) at the Ministry, Matheus Joko Santoso (MJS) and Adi Wahyono (AW) on Monday (December 7).
The KPK has named Batubara and four others as suspects in the case, including Matheus Joko Santoso (MJS) and Adi Wahyono (AW) as well as private parties Ardian I M (AIM) and Harry Sidabuke (HS).
The minister had allegedly received a bribe of Rp17 billion as fee for the provision of basic food social assistance for those affected by COVID-19 in the Greater Jakarta area (Jabodetabek).
"In the implementation of the first period of the basic food assistance package, it is suspected that a fee of Rp12 billion was received, of which around Rp8.2 billion in cash was handed over by MJS (Matheus Joko Santoso) to JPB (Juliari Peter Batubara) through AW (Adi Wahyono)," KPK Chief Firli Bahuri stated during a press conference in Jakarta on early Sunday (December 6).
The money was then managed by Eko and Shelvy N, who were Batubara's right-hand people, to be used to fulfill his personal needs.
"For the second period of the implementation of basic food assistance packages, some fee money amounting to around Rp8.8 billion was collected from October 2020 to December 2020 that was also suspected to be used for meeting JPB's needs," Bahuri noted while pegging the total bribe allegedly received by Batubara at Rp17 billion. Related news: Social Affairs Ministry to open access for KPK widely on graft case
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EDITED BY INE
Translator: Benardy Ferdiansyah/Aria Cindy
Editor: Suharto
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