Jakarta. The founder and the current CEO of Islamic charity organization Aksi Cepat Tanggap, or ACT, were named suspects on Monday for alleged fraud in their handling of funds from US aircraft manufacturer Boeing meant as compensation for the victims of a fatal Lion Air flight.
ACT co-founder Ahyudin and CEO Ibnu Khajar are accused of misappropriating billions of rupiah Boeing has paid to compensate families of the victims of Lion Air’s Max 737 fatal flight on Oct. 18, 2018.
A similar charge has been slapped on Novardi Imam Akbari, who chairs the ACT advisory board, and Hariyana Hermain, who police said is the senior vice president of Global Islamic Philanthropy.
“We are still in internal discussion whether we need to arrest and detain the suspects,” said Chief Comr. Helfi Assegaf, the deputy director of special crime division with the National Police in Jakarta.
ACT has come under public scrutiny since the media reported fantastic monthly salaries received by its executives earlier this month.
Ahyudin, for instance, was reportedly paid Rp 250 million per month using charity funds collected by the organization.
He and Ibnu are also charged with money laundering.
“ACT has received from Boeing a total of Rp 138 billion ($9.2 million), of which Rp 103 billion was spent on ACT programs but the remaining Rp 34 billion was allegedly misappropriated,” Helfi said.
The suspects have transferred Rp 7.8 billion of the Boeing funds to a private company, spent Rp 8.7 billion to build an Islamic Boarding School in Tasikmalaya, spent more than Rp 4 billion on trucks and buses, and made other spending worth billions of rupiah unrelated to the compensation programs, the officer added.
“A total of Rp 34.57 billion is alleged to have been misappropriated,” Helfi said.
Ahyudin was the CEO of ACT from 2019-2022.
He and three other suspects used ACT to win contracts to manage Boeing’s crash-victim funds and sealed agreements with vendors for humanitarian programs on behalf of the heirs of the victims, National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Ahmad Ramadhan said.
