Rafael Alun and Collective Corruption in Tax Office

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The assault on Cristalino David Ozora Latumahina set a snowball in motion. After widespread coverage of the luxury lifestyle enjoyed by Mario Dandy Satriyo, the public spotlight turned to the assets owned by Mario’s father, Rafael Alun Trisambodo, an official at the tax directorate-general. In his state official wealth report, Rafael claimed his fortune was worth Rp56.1 billion, despite the total of his salary and allowances only coming to around Rp36 million to Rp46 million per month.

Rafael’s wealth is only slightly less than that of his boss, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani, who is worth Rp58 billion. Rafael’s assets are four times larger than those of his immediate superior, Tax Director-General Suryo Utomo, who reported assets of Rp14.4 billion.

Because of the public spotlight, Sri Mulyani ordered the finance ministry’s inspectorate-general to look into the origins of Rafael’s assets. She also asked the inspectorate to investigate other tax officials with suspiciously large assets. The finance ministry has now put Rafael and 28 other tax officials in the red list because of their problematic assets.

Tempo tried to trace Rafael’s assets. He owns shares worth Rp1.5 billion in six companies. The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) believes that these six companies are the key to uncovering the facts behind Rafael’s assets because only one transaction from these companies could be worth hundreds of billions of rupiah. This means that the total of the transactions in these companies could reach trillions of rupiah.

One of these companies manages a luxury housing complex in North Minahasa, North Sulawesi. Through his wife, Ernie Meike Torondek, Rafael also owns shares in restaurants in Yogyakarta and in central Jakarta. One of these restaurants is located directly behind one of his homes in Yogyakarta.