KPK Confiscated Fuad Amin Imron's Assets

Bangkalan, East Java (Antara) - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), here on Thursday, confiscated assets at several locations belonging to Fuad Amin Imron, the speaker of East Java's Bangkalan Legislative Assembly. The police's mobile brigade forces were deployed to offer security during the confiscation of assets belonging to the influential figure of Bangkalan district on the island of Madura. The assets included a boutique on Jalan Teuku Umar and his house on Jalan Raya Saksak. Fuad Amin was caught red-handed on Monday night receiving bribe money, KPK Deputy Chairman Adnan Pandu Praja stated on Tuesday. The former regent of the district was arrested with two others suspects, Adnan remarked, adding that the KPK had also confiscated Rp700 million from them. Fuad Amin had been known to and was believed to have regularly received bribe money in connection with a gas purchase agreement for a company owned by the regional administration (BUMD) since 2007. The money received by Fuad Amin was part of an agreement reached with his bribers in 2007, when he still held the post of regent of the district, Adnan remarked. "The proofs are so evident that he could not deny them," he claimed. The KPK revealed its plans to also press money-laundering charges against Fuad Amin Imron. Currently, a team of investigators are in Bangkalan to continue investigations, Adnan remarked, adding that during the investigation, the KPK had found around Rp4 billion from several houses of Fuad. There are indications of money laundering, he pointed out. "We sent a team there yesterday to see if they could find anything as a lot of money was found in the houses of Fuad," he noted. If proven guilty, Fuad faces a maximum jail term of 20 years and a maximum fine of Rp1 billion. The two other suspects involved in his case are PT Media Karya Sentosa (MKS) Director Antonio Bambang Djatmiko and a courier Rauf. PT MKS was awarded the contract to build a gas pipeline from the West Madura Offshore gas block. The owner of the oil and gas block Pertamina Hulu Energi, a subsidiary of state-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina, agreed to sell gas to two power plants, but the gas pipeline and power plants have yet to be built. The KPK suspects that the current Bangkalan district head Makmun Ibnu Fuad helped his father Fuad Amin in receiving bribes. "His son was one of the recipients of the bribe money who later extended it to his father. He is part of the ring," Adnan Pandu Praja, the KPK deputy chief commissioner, stated at the KPK Building here on Wednesday. Adnan has given assurance that Fuad Amin's son would be summoned. "When the time comes, he will be summoned because he is part of the ring," he asserted.(*)