Avanti caught up in satellite lease scandal
July 18, 2023
By Chris Forrester
An Indonesian criminal court in Jakarta sentenced four individuals each to 12 years in prison on July 17th for corruption involving the lease of a satellite from Avanti Communications.
A US citizen, Thomas Anthony Van Der Heyden, who serves as a senior advisor in DNK, was the last to be convicted in a separate hearing at the Central Jakarta District Court on the same day. Dini Nusa Kusuma (DNK) has been Indonesia’s premier regional Information & Communication Technology company and established since 2001.
Earlier on the same day, a joint panel of civilian and military judges found DNK Chief Commissioner Arifin Wiguna, DNK CEO Surya Cipta Witoelar, and former Defense Ministry DGl Rear Admiral (retired) Agus Purwoto guilty of corruption in the same case.
The crime centered around the lease of a satellite by the Indonesian Defense Ministry to fill a vacant orbital position at 123 degrees East. The scandal was triggered when Indonesia lost control of the 123 degrees east orbital slot when the Garuda-1 satellite was deorbited in 2015. To prevent the permanent loss of the L-band spectrum rights at the 123 degrees orbital slot, the Indonesian Defense Ministry leased the Artemis satellite from British satellite operator Avanti Communications in 2016.
The Indonesia ministry failed to pay the outstanding lease, and in June 2018, a UK arbitration tribunal ordered the ministry to repay Avanti $20 million. Investigations by Indonesian prosecutors revealed that the defense ministry official unlawfully signed the satellite lease agreement with Avanti, with the involvement of Dini Nusa Kusuma executives as brokers.
As part of the verdict, the court ordered the four defendants to return stolen money, amounting to Rp 153 billion (about $10.2 million) for Agus and Rp 100 billion for each of the other three. Failure to repay the amount would result in an additional three years added to their prison sentences.
The scandal resulted in a financial loss of Rp 453 billion ($30.2 million) to the state, according to court documents.