Prosecutors at Jakarta's Central Corruption Court indicted a former Garuda Indonesia (GA, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) CEO on September 18, accusing him, along with several other former senior executives at the airline and other entities, of causing losses totalling IDR9.37 trillion rupiah (USD609.1 million) in a deal to acquire CRJ1000s and ATR72-600s.
Emirsyah Satar, who ran Garuda between 2005 and 2014, is charged with causing financial losses to the state, along with:
- Agus Wahyudo, former executive project manager of aircraft delivery at Garuda;
- Hadinoto Soedigono, former director of engineering and fleet management at Garuda;
- Adrian Azhar, former vice president of fleet acquisition at Garuda;
- Albert Burhan, former vice president of treasury management at Garuda;
- Setijo Awibowo, former vice president of strategic management at Garuda; and
- Soetikno Soedarjo, a commercial advisor who represented the interests of ATR - Avions de Transport Régional and Bombardier Aerospace.
The indictment proceedings, reported by Indonesian media outlets, alleged the accused acted to financially benefit themselves as well as Bombardier, ATR, and Nordic Aviation Capital. Satar is also charged with leaking confidential fleet plans to Soedarjo, who allegedly passed them onto Bombardier's commercial advisor. That pair then set up a Hong Kong-based company and allegedly conspired to secure the aircraft order. ch-aviation does not suggest the allegations are true, only that they have been made. The relevant case number is 78/Pid.Sus-TPK/2023/PN Jkt.Pst.
At the time, Garuda had a long-term fleet plan that did not include regional jets and turboprops of the type manufactured by Bombardier and ATR. However, prosecutors allege Satar decided to deviate from the pre-determined and approved plan to buy a 70-seater regional jet, to instead acquire one with a capacity of around 90 passengers. He allegedly did this without any further market or aircraft-needs analysis being undertaken. The CEO then instructed the other former Garuda employees, now co-defendants, who were all part of the fleet procurement team, to change the plan's aircraft selection criteria. Prosecutors say this was done without approval from the Garuda board and designed to benefit Bombardier.
It is also alleged that Satar organised a pre-delivery payment of USD3.08 million to ATR despite those aircraft coming to the carrier on lease. Court filings say that as a result of the CRJ-1000 aircraft procurement process and the takeover of the ATR72-600s, the Indonesian state incurred losses. The government owns 64.5% of Garuda Indonesia.
In 2020, Satar was sentenced to eight years imprisonment for his role in a corrupt engine procurement matter also while he was CEO. When not taking day trips to court, he now enjoys the confines of Sukamiskin Prison in West Java. His new matter is next scheduled for mention on October 2.
