Indonesia’s Senior Minister Named in the Pandora Papers Investigation

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Indonesia’s Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan has been named in the Pandora Papers coverage following his role in one of the shells companies registered in Panama, a close aide confirmed.

The minister’s spokesperson Jodi Mahardi said on Tuesday that Luhut served as the president director or chairman of Petrocapital SA from 2007 to 2010.

The Pandora Papers is a leak of almost 12 million documents in the forms of documents, photos, and emails that reveal hidden wealth, tax avoidance and, money laundering by some of the world’s rich and powerful.

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The documents were gathered by more than 600 journalists in 117 countries and published this week.

The establishment of the Petrocapital SA was under the laws of Panama.

“The company was founded in 2006 by Edgardo E Dia and Fernando A Gil. Petrocapital has a paid-in capital of $5 million, engaging in, among others, the oil and gas sector,” Jodi told Kompas.com on Tuesday, October 5.

Jodi said that Petrocapital SA would initially be used for overseas business development, especially in Central America and South America. However, there were various obstacles related to geographical location, culture, and legal certainty for investment.

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“Mr. Luhut B Pandjaitan decided to resign from Petrocapital and put more focus on his business in Indonesia,” said Jodi.

During his tenure at Petrocapital SA, Jodi added, the company had not succeeded in getting an investment project.

“Besides, no cooperation was established with the state oil and gas firm, and the name of Petrocapital was never changed to Pertamina Petrocapital SA,” he said.

The data of Pandora Papers was obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in Washington DC. The documents comprise the hidden wealth of the powerful people from 200 countries. The elites, including high-ranking officials and politicians, use secret offshore companies to hide their wealth. It is used to avoid paying taxes and other things that may be worse.

(Writer: Fitria Chusna Farisa | Editor: Bayu Galih)

Source: https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2021/10/05/12572651/luhut-pandjaitan-disebut-dalam-pandora-papers-ini-penjelasan-jubir?page=all#page2.