Jakarta. The Attorney General’s Office announced that a key suspect in a major graft case in Asabri, a social insurance company for soldiers and policemen, died on Saturday afternoon.

Ilham Wardhana Siregar passed away while being treated at An-Nisa Hospital in Tangerang for illness, AGO spokesman Leonard Simanjuntak said in a statement.

The spokesman didn’t go into details about the illness that caused Ilham’s death.

A former investment division head of Asabri, Ilham is one of nine individuals to be named suspects in the graft scandal along with ten corporate offenders prosecuted under the 1999 anti-corruption law.

The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) estimated that the graft scandal has cost the state Rp 22.8 trillion ($1.6 billion).

Ilham was detained at Salemba penitentiary in Central Jakarta on May 28 after his prosecution documents were deemed complete, according to the spokesman.

"Due to the passing of Ilham Wardhana Siregar, the head of the East Jakarta Prosecutor’s Office will soon issue a termination of his prosecution once the death certificate from An-Nisa Hospital in Tangerang is received," the AGO spokesman said.

Asabri, which manages insurance funds of nearly a million soldiers and policemen, came under scrutiny in January for allegedly misappropriating the money.

The scandal broke almost simultaneously after the AGO announced criminal investigation against another state-run insurer, Jiwasraya, for alleged crooked investments and corruption that led to multi-billion dollars of losses.

Two businessmen Benny Tjokrosaputro and Heru Hidayat, who were recently sentenced to life for the Jiwasraya scandal, are also implicated in the Asabri graft case.

Other suspects include former Asabri president directors Maj. Gen. (ret.) Adam Rachmat Damiri and Lieu. Gen. (ret.) Sonny Widjaja; former Asabri directors Bachtiar Effendi and Hari Setianto; and two private businessmen Lukman Purnomosidi and Jimmy Sutopo.

Ten companies linked with Asabri’s bad investments were also named suspects under the corporate criminal liability provision of the anti-corruption law.