Probably, Bahasyim Assafie Is The Richest Tax Officer In Indonesia...Or in the world? Former Indonesian Taxman ‘Extorted Rp 932 Billion’. Gayus is nothing!If a middle-ranking tax officer like Gayus Tambunan could amass Rp 28 billion for allegedly cooking the books, how much more could a director of tax investigations make?
Prosecutors on Thursday shocked a Jakarta courtroom when they accused Bahasyim Assifie, a former director of tax investigations currently on trial for corruption, of extorting a staggering Rp 932 billion ($104.4 million) from taxpayers and hoarding it in bank accounts under the names of his wife and daughter.
Prosecutors said Bahasyim, who headed several offices within the Jakarta Tax Office from 2002 to 2007, had stored the money in three separate account at Bank Negara Indonesia.
According to the indictment, two accounts under his wife’s name, Sri Purwanti, contained Rp 885.15 billion and Rp 20.61 billion, while an account under his daughter’s name, Winda Arum Hapsari, contained Rp 26.53 billion.
“The defendant has no businesses that would allow him to generate such large revenues,” prosecutor Fachrizal said.
“As a civil servant, the most he could have earned from his job was about Rp 30 million a month. So the money he put in the bank accounts may have resulted from crimes in connection with his post.”
Police arrested Bahasyim in April after his bank accounts were flagged by the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) for suspicious activity.
At the time, reports said it contained as much as Rp 70 billion.
Bahasyim was appointed to the post of director of tax examinations and investigations in Jakarta in October 2002, with the power to interrogate taxpayers, seize documents, launch searches and recommend actions based on the results of investigations.
“Before 2002, Bahasyim already had Rp 30 billion in the bank accounts,” Fachrizal said.
Bahasyim’s lawyer previously said Bahasyim started investing in real estate and fisheries businesses in the 1990s.
From 2006 and 2007, Bahasyim was promoted to the head of several sections of the tax office, until he was moved to the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) in 2008.
Despite detailed descriptions of 304 money transfers between family accounts, prosecutors failed to clearly pinpoint the source of the funds.
They instead chose to begin with a relatively minor Rp 1 billion payment from taxpayer Kartini Mulyadi to build a case against the defendant.
Bahasyim, who tried to avoid having his picture taken by the media during Thursday’s hearing, faces up to life in prison if found guilty of corruption and money-laundering charges. indonesianstockmarket.com