We suppose money doesn’t mean squat when you’re rich, with Indonesians getting to see that embodied IRL recently when Jakarta socialite-slash-drug convict Richard Muljadi said he recently booked an entire flight to Bali for fear of getting infected with the coronavirus while up in the air.
In a series of stories posted on Instagram yesterday, Richard said that both him and his wife, Shalvynne Chang, are both “super paranoid” when it comes to COVID-19.
“Had to make sure no one else [is on] this flight. We ain’t flying unless it’s just us,” Richard wrote.
He showed off the flight’s empty seats on his uploads, with the stories reportedly widely circulating on various WhatsApp groups since yesterday. Richard’s Instagram account, meanwhile, is set to private.
“After I’d book as many seats as possible it was still cheaper than [chartering] a PJ. That’s the trick fellas. #lifehacks,” he continued in another story, referring to a private jet.
Lion Air Group spokesman Danang Mandala Prihantoro confirmed to Detik that Richard was onboard Batik Air’s ID-6502 flight flying from Jakarta to Denpasar yesterday afternoon, but said that the booking under that name was only for two passengers.
According to reports, the flight has a capacity for 12 business class passengers and 150 economy class passengers. It is estimated that he could have spent between IDR75-110 million (US$5,383-7,895) to book the entire flight.
Though it has yet to be confirmed, there’s plenty of reason to believe that Richard was simply stating facts on his Instagram stories, as the 32-year-old is well-known for his lavish spending habits that he often parade on social media in the past. This includes buying his dog a car at one point.
Just in case you didn’t know, Richard is the grandson of pharmaceuticals magnate Kartini Muljadi (she’s ranked #42 in Forbes’ 2020 list of 50 richest Indonesians, with a net worth of US$620 million). He made national headlines back in 2018 following his arrest, after a police officer coincidentally caught him snorting cocaine inside the restroom of a restaurant in Jakarta’s Pacific Place mall. He was later sentenced to one-and-a-half years in prison in February 2019, and ordered to undergo rehabilitation for consuming cocaine.
