Indonesian authorities are investigating a scheme to misclassify crude palm oil (CPO) as palm oil mill effluent (POME) for export, a move that allegedly resulted in billions of rupiah in lost revenue for the state. The investigation has led to raids on multiple companies and the naming of 11 suspects, including government officials.
The Attorney General’s Office has been conducting searches at several companies suspected of manipulating export codes between 2022 and 2024, according to a statement released Thursday, February 12, 2026.
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“The Attorney General’s investigators are conducting searches and We see still ongoing in Sumatra, at several offices belonging to the companies mentioned yesterday,” said Anang Supriatna, Head of the Legal Information Center at the Attorney General’s Office, to reporters in Jakarta on Thursday, February 12, 2026.
Supriatna did not disclose the total number of companies being searched or their identities.
The searches are focused on the areas of Pekanbaru and Medan.
“Regarding the suspects and the companies involved, we will wait for the results,” he added.
The case originated after the government implemented policies to restrict and control CPO exports in an effort to maintain domestic cooking oil supplies and price stability. Investigators discovered that some exporters were fraudulently reclassifying CPO as POME – a byproduct of palm oil production – to circumvent these regulations.
Authorities allege that bribes were offered and accepted to facilitate the fraudulent administrative and oversight processes. The estimated financial loss to the state as a result of the scheme is between 10.6 and 14.3 trillion rupiah.
To date, 11 individuals have been named as suspects. Three are government officials: Fadjar Donny Thahjadi, former Director of Technical Customs at the Directorate General of Customs and Excise (DJBC); Lila Harsyah Bakhtiar, Head of the Sub-Directorate of Non-Food Plantation Industry and Policy Analyst at the Ministry of Industry; and Muhammad Zulfikar, Head of the Counseling and Information Services Section of the Pekanbaru Customs and Excise Office.
(tfq/wis)
