On October 15, Indonesia's Attorney General's Office (AGO) announced that it had named the President Director and shareholder of PT Ceria Nugraha Indotama, identified by the initials DS, as a new suspect in the alleged corruption case involving nickel management in Southeast Sulawesi during 2017–2020, and decided to detain him immediately. Previously, on September 25, the AGO had already named and detained four suspects: MTP, Secretary General of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) for 2013–2017; BS, Director of Mineral Business Development at the Directorate General of Mineral and Coal of the ESDM Ministry for 2017–2018; MHI, Head of the Mineral and Coal Division at the ESDM Office of Southeast Sulawesi Province for 2017–2019; and NRH, Head of the Sucofindo Kendari Unit for 2012–2019.
Anang Supriatna, Head of the Legal Information Center at the AGO, said that DS is suspected of exporting nickel without fulfilling its domestic market obligation (DMO) and of manipulating nickel content testing. DS allegedly requested PT Sucofindo in Kendari to issue a nickel content test document that did not reflect actual conditions, which was used to meet export requirements, and then requested the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources to issue an export permit recommendation. At that time, the company did not yet have an RKAB, so it did not meet the conditions for issuance. DS is also suspected of asking officials at the Southeast Sulawesi Provincial ESDM Office to refrain from conducting a thorough verification of the RKAB documents and of providing money to state officials.
According to calculations by the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP), the case caused state financial losses of approximately IDR 401.65 billion. During the investigation, approximately IDR 1.2795 billion in suspected bribery refunds was received, including IDR 194.5 million returned by the Southeast Sulawesi Provincial ESDM Office and IDR 1.085 billion returned by Sucofindo. On August 31, the AGO seized IDR 401.65 billion submitted by PT Ceria Nugraha Indotama.
DS is charged with violating Article 603 and Article 606 of the Criminal Code (KUHP), as well as Articles 3 and 12 of the Corruption Law. The core of the case is that PT Ceria is suspected of illegally exporting nickel from 2017 to 2019 by manipulating nickel content test results to show a level below 1.7%, thereby meeting export requirements.
