The Jakarta High Court upheld an earlier court ruling that ordered the Supersemar Foundation to repay the equivalent of $109 million in damages to the government for misusing charity funds to finance businesses of former President Suharto’s cronies, a spokesman said on Monday.
Founded by Suharto in 1974 to channel scholarships to students from low-income families, Supersemar Foundation has since collected trillions of rupiah in funds.
In March last year, the South Jakarta District Court declared the foundation guilty of using part of the donor’s funds to finance businesses of Suharto’s cronies and children, including now-defunct air carrier Sempati Air, owned by his youngest son Hutomo Mandala Putra, better known as Tommy Suharto.
The district court had ordered the foundation to pay $105 million and Rp 46 billion ($3.9 million) in damages, but rejected prosecutors’ demand for the Suharto family to repay compensation, putting the responsibility solely on the foundation. The amount represented only 25 percent of the total compensation sought by prosecutors.
“The district court verdict has been upheld with an unanimous decision by a three-member judge panel, who considered the ruling as correct and precise,” said Jakarta High Court spokesman Madya Suharja on Monday.
“All the parties concerned can file an appeal [to the Supreme Court] within 30 days after they officially receive a copy of the verdict,” he told the Jakarta Globe.
Prosecutors have accused the foundation of forcing state banks to share part of their net profits as charity during the time that Suharto was in power and of misusing part of the fund for unrelated businesses. They demanded compensation payment of $420 million and Rp 185 billion from the Suharto and the Supersemar Foundation.
The district court last year declared that the late Suharto could not be held responsible for the money flow to private firms because he had delegated all authority and responsibility to the management.
But the judges ruled Supersemar was guilty of misappropriating the fund and ordered it to pay a quarter of the amount recommended by prosecutors, on the grounds that not all of the Supersemar’s funding had come from state firms.
The district court verdict had prompted both prosecutors and lawyers for Supersemar and the Suharto family to appeal, but no decision to appeal the High Court finding has yet been made by either party.
