Former Garuda Indonesia CEO Emirsyah Satar has been arrested and is facing money laundering charges relating to his tenure at the national flag carrier.
The arrest is tied to a long running cross border bribery investigation involving engine-maker Rolls-Royce.
Rolls-Royce was convicted of paying off company executives in exchange for contracts at various airlines in Thailand, India, Malaysia and Thailand.
Satar was named a suspect more than two years ago by Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the agency now says it has secured enough evidence for a prosecution.
He has been accused of accepting payments of 1.2 million euros and US$180,000 in cash which are linked to contracts ‘worth billions of dollars.’
Investigators have seized homes in Jakarta and Singapore and freezed bank accounts in Satar’s name.
Satar’s lawyer acknowledged the payments as ‘gifts’ but denied knowingly accepting bribes as the head of a state funded business.
"After the investigation started, he realised that as a state employee he should not have received anything, so he returned the money," lawyer Luhut Pangaribuan told Bloomberg.
In 2017, Rolls-Royce agreed to pay a US$800 million fine over the bribery and corruption claims.
