Corrupt Indonesian taxman gets 7 years in prison

[January 19, 2011]  JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- An Indonesian official whose bribe-taking cost the government up to $700 million in unpaid taxes was sentenced Wednesday to seven years behind bars, angering many in a country eager to shed its image as one of the world's most corrupt.

Prosecutors had been seeking nearly three times that.

Gayus Tambunan, 31, was accused of pocketing at least $2.7 million from big companies that wanted to avoid paying taxes.

But it was the alleged web of involvement of everyone from senior police and immigration officials to judges that captured headlines in the nation of 237 million.

More spectacularly, authorities confirmed that Tambunan had allegedly bribed his way into trips out of prison at least 68 times from the time of his arrest almost one year ago.

He was captured on camera at a tennis match on the resort island of Bali in November, clumsily disguised in a black wig and sunglasses, and he has since been accused of buying fake passports so he could gamble in Macau and shop in Singapore.

The verdict by Albertine Ho, presiding judge of the South Jakarta District Court, was read out live on all major television and radio stations, lighting up social networking sights such as Facebook and Twitter.

"The defendant has been found guilty of corruption ... and of giving false information about the amount of money he amassed," Ho said, giving him seven years behind bars and a fine of $30,000.

She said the 20 years demanded by prosecutors was too high because he had not been acting alone.

Almost everyone complained the sentence was too lenient.

Bambang Siswoutomo, a resident in the capital, Jakarta, who has been closely watching the trial, couldn't believe his ears.

"This is total madness," he said. "He's the most famous corrupt official in our country! If he gets off this lightly, what kind of message does it send to others?"

Tambunan, who earned just $1,300 a month as a midlevel public official, has admitted that he helped more than a dozen big companies dodge hundreds of millions of dollars in tax.

A police anti-corruption investigator told the local magazine Tempo that the government lost an estimated $700 million in revenue from companies he helped dodge taxes. The magazine did not name the investigator.

Tambunan said that, while he benefited from that financially, all the attention showered on him was unfair.

"I'm just a little fish," he said in his defense plea, adding that prosecutors, generals and high-ranking tax officials, whom he singled out by name, were much more deeply involved than he. "What about them?"

He said he was pleased with Wednesday's sentence.

Indonesia has only recently emerged from the 32-year dictatorship of Gen. Suharto, whose family was accused of graft to the tune of $600 million.

Though President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who became the first directly elected leader in 2004, has made fighting graft a priority, his nation is still listed by international watchdog Transparency International as one of the world's most corrupt.

[Associated Press; By IRWAN FIRDAUS]

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