Antigraft Court Finds Construction Firm Guilty of Embezzlement in Landmark Legal Case
Jakarta. An antigraft court in Jakarta found private construction company Duta Graha Indah, or DGI, guilty of corruption on Monday (27/11) in two cases and sentenced the company's former chief executive to four years and eight months in prison.
Duta Graha, which has been renamed Nusa Konstruksi Enjiniring, was proven to have embezzled Rp 14 billion ($1 million) from funds allocated to the construction of the Udayana University Hospital in Jimbaran, Bali, in 2009-11, causing Rp 24 billion in state losses.
Duta Graha was also charged with deliberately misusing a budget markup of Rp 33.4 billion to construct a guest house project in Palembang, South Sumatra, causing Rp 54.7 billion in state losses.
Current Jakarta Deputy Governor Sandiaga Uno served as a commissioner of the company at the time of the embezzlement. He was questioned twice this year by Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) officials as a witness regarding those cases.
The court's decision against Duta Graha marks the first time that a corporation has been sentenced under the country's anticorruption law.
The Jakarta court also sentenced Dudung Purwadi, former chief executive of the company, to almost five years in prison for his involvement in those cases. The company has been ordered to return the embezzled funds to the state.
Prosecutors initially sought a seven-year prison term for Dudung.
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