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Guyana issued passports to jailed Indonesian tax official
The Guyana passport that Gayus Tambunan was caught with.
Indonesia’s National Police has confirmed that five falsified Guyana passports bearing photos of tax graft convict Gayus H. Tambunan, his wife Milana Anggareni, and their three children, were made available and officially registered in Guyana.
Guyanese officials had reportedly said that from all indications the passports were fakes.
Immigration officials yesterday in Guyana said that from all indications, a local representative of the International Police (InterPol), may have been assisting in the investigations.
The National Police had sent a team to Guyana to investigate the passports allegedly belonging to Gayus and his family.
“The passports [officially] exist,” National Police Chief Detective Commander General Ito Sumardi said late on Tuesday.
The police previously found pictures of an assortment of five Guyana passports bearing false identification and photographs of Gayus and his family, in an email belonging to suspect A.
The email had been sent by another suspect, US national John Jerome Grice.
It added that based on Gayus’s avowal, Johan had not handed over the falsified passports because Gayus had not paid the US$300,000 fee required to make them.
“[The passports] had not been used yet,” Ito said, as reported by kompas.com.
This latest development will now mean that Guyana’s authorities will have to determine how the passports ended up being issued by Guyana. It is unclear whether the passports were issued in Guyana or at one of the embassies abroad.
Attempts to contact Crime Chief, Seelall Persaud, for comments provide futile yesterday as his office phone rang out.
John had previously helped Gayus obtain a falsified passport using the alias Sony Laksono, for a fee of US$100,000.
John is now wanted by the National Police and Interpol.
Late last month, Indonesian authorities announced that they were sending investigators to Guyana to check the authenticity of passports.
The “Gayus” passport has the name of Yosep Morris, born on May 9 1979, and is valid from July, 23, 2007 to July 12, 2012, while the “Milana” passport holds the name of Ann Morris, born on February 6, 1979, valid from July 18, 2007 until July 18, 2012.
Last month, Indonesia jailed the lowly tax official in a high profile case in that country for bribery.
Police had said that convicted civil servant had acquired fake Guyana passports and from all indications was planning to flee to the South American country to escape prosecution.
Tambunan was accused of amassing millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains and of bribing judges.
The News agency reported that in addition to a seven-year sentence that exposed rampant Government graft, Tambunan was also fined 300 million rupiah (US$30,000) after being found guilty of corruption.
Crowds booed and jeered when the judge read the verdict, which was less than the 20 years demanded by the prosecutors. Prosecutors plan to appeal.
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