Being a minister of one of the biggest countries in the world is apparently no guarantee that you won’t get scammed.
Indonesia’s Minister of Home Affairs, Tjahjo Kumolo, was allegedly scammed by an unemployed man, a 35-year-old identified by his initials NSN, who was arrested in Bekasi recently.
NSN told the police that he had tricked Tjahjo into believing that he was the principal of a primary school in the Central Java capital of Semarang.
“The alleged perpetrator asked for a donation of IDR10 million (US$702) to build a mosque and their school building,” Jakarta Metropolitan Police spokesperson Reza Pahlevi said today, as quoted by CNN Indonesia.
Minister Tjahjo sent the donation to NSN through his staff. After some time had passed, the minister asked his staff to check on the project’s development. They later found out that there was no such project and the school said that NSN wasn’t their principal.
Tjahjo’s staff reported the scam to the police, who then tracked down NSN using the bank account number which was sent to Minister Tjahjo. After he was arrested in Bekasi, NSN said he was unemployed and managed to get Minister Tjahjo’s number from an unidentified Whatsapp group.
In his confession to the police, NSN said he used the money for gambling. Police say NSN may face up to 20 years in prison on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering.
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