Chronology of case Tommy Suharto

Up to 1998: Tommy and other members of the Suharto family acquired billions of dollars in legal and illegal business deals in agriculture, banking, manufacturing, mining, and transport sectors. Their businesses interests were carried out both within and outside Indonesia. Among others, Tommy acquired a majority shareholding in the Italian luxury car manufacturer  Lamborghini at a cost value of $40 million, and later a franchise for Indonesia's national car. 1 Tommy's wealth also included a 75 percent stake in an 18-hole golf course with 22 luxury apartments in England, a $4 million hunting ranch in New Zealand and a half share in a $4 million yacht moored in Australia.

1998: Suharto stepped down as president amid an economic crisis and rising discontent.

1998: The Guernsey branch of the BNP Paribas bank notified the regulators that it suspected illegal behaviour associated with a deposit from Garnet Investments Limited, a company owned by Tommy, but registered in the Virgin Islands. The authorities in Guernsey blocked the payments from the account.

1999:  Jakarta District Court acquit Tommy of corruption charge involving the manipulation of Rp 95.4 billion in Bulog land scam deal.

2000, September: Tommy was arrested in connection with a bomb explosion at the Jakarta stock exchange.

2000, September: Tommy convicted of illegally receiving property from the state logistics agency in exchange for the construction of a shopping mall. 2

2001, November: Tommy was investigated and arrested in connection with the  assassination of Supreme Court Judge Syafiuddin Kartasasmita.  Judge Syafiuddin Kartasasmita had sentenced Tommy to 18 months in jail in relation to an $11 million land scam for which he had previously been acquitted. 3

2002, July: Tommy found guilty on charges of murder, weapons possession and evading justice. The murder charged was in connection with the assassination of the supreme court judge Syafiuddin Kartasasmita who had previously convicted Tommy. The judge was shot dead by gunmen on a motorcycle. Police investigations revealed that the gunmen were hired by Tommy at a fee of 100 million rupiah ($10,800). The gunmen handed the weapons back to Tommy after the shooting. 4 Tommy was jailed for 15 years.

2004, November: Tommy's sentence was reduced to 10 years on appeal.

2006, October: Tommy was conditionally released from jail after serving a third of the sentence for plotting the murder of a Supreme Court judge. 5 One of the conditions of his release was a  ban on travelling abroad for 1 year.

2007, January: Garnet Investment, a company owned by Tommy sued a branch of French bank BNP Paribas for blocking release of at least €36 million ($46.7 million) deposited in the bank. Indonesia opened investigations on whether the millions of dollars in the bank account were obtained legally.6

2007, April: Investigations into the 2005 transfer of approximately US$10 million from Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) Paribas in London.

2007, July: Tommy was named suspect in a graft case involving clove monopoly worth Rp 175 billion, and the misuse of government  subsidies for personal enrichment.

2007, November: Tommy sued for allegedly defrauding the state in a land exchange deal in the mid-1990s, which led to loses of up to Rp500 billion. He was further accused of manipulation of the Rp 95.4 billion land scam by trading swampland to the government agency, BULOG, in exchange for prime land for commercial development.

2008, May: Tommy was sued again on charges related to illegal sale of the automotive company, PT Timor Putra National (TPN),  which it is alleged to have caused the state loss of US$400 million. The sale was considered illegal as it violated the 2000  decision of the Policy Committee for Financial Sector and the Indonesian Banking Restructuring Agency (BPPN) forbidding sale of assets to parties with similar financial interests. 7

2008, February: Court rejected a civil case against Tommy for alleged corruption and awarded him 550,000 dollars in a countersuit. 8

2009, February: Judges in Jakarta ruled that Tommy was not guilty of stealing $400m (£275m) of state loans 9 over his failed national car project, while a case related to a lucrative clove monopoly was also shelved in 2008. 10

2009, February: Tommy cleared in the BNP Paribas Bank case. Indonesia lost the case (The  judgment delivered), the account was unfrozen, and Tommy  recovered control of the funds. 11

DEVELOPING .............