Jakarta. The Attorney General’s Office has searched dozens of locations in connection with a corruption investigation into crude palm oil (CPO) and its derivative product exports between 2022 and 2024, officials said Monday.

“We have carried out searches at dozens of sites in Riau and Medan (North Sumatra),” said Syarief Sulaeman Nahdi, investigations director at the agency’s special crimes unit, in Jakarta.

The raids targeted offices, residences, and palm oil processing facilities. Investigators are now moving to seize assets allegedly linked to private-sector suspects.

“There are several plots of land and palm oil processing plants currently in the process of being seized. We are also confiscating heavy equipment, vehicles, and other assets,” Syarief said.

The case centers on alleged manipulation of export classifications to evade government controls imposed on CPO, a strategic national commodity.

The government implemented export restrictions and controls on CPO from 2020 to 2024 to maintain domestic cooking oil supply and price stability. The measures included a domestic market obligation (DMO), export approvals, export duties, and palm oil levies.

According to investigators, exporters allegedly misclassified high-acid CPO as palm oil mill effluent (POME), using a different Harmonized System (HS) code intended for residue or waste products.

“The investigators found deviations in the form of engineered export commodity classifications, where high-acid CPO was deliberately claimed as POME using a different HS code,” Syarief said at a previous press conference in February.

He said the scheme was designed to circumvent export controls so that what was essentially CPO could be shipped abroad as if it were not subject to the same obligations and levies.

Auditors are still calculating the total state losses, but preliminary estimates suggest losses of between Rp 10 trillion ($592 million) and Rp 14 trillion in lost state revenue. The figure does not yet include potential broader economic losses, which are also being assessed.

A total of 11 suspects have been named in the case, including three public officials and eight private-sector executives.

The public officials include LHB, a subdirector for non-food plantation industry products at the Industry Ministry; FJR, a technical director at the Directorate General of Customs and Excise who currently heads the Bali, West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara customs offices; and MZ, a civil servant at the Pekanbaru Customs Office.

The private-sector suspects include executives from several palm oil companies, identified by their initials as ES, ERW, FLX, RND, TNY, VNR, RBN and YSR.

The Attorney General’s Office said the investigation is ongoing and further asset seizures are possible as authorities continue to trace financial flows linked to the alleged export scheme.

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