The trial of the couple behind First Travel, who stand accused of perpetrating one of the biggest religious-based scams ever in Indonesia, is finally nearing its conclusion, with the owners of the disgraced travel agency facing the possibility of lengthy prison sentences.
Yesterday, the trial’s prosecutors demanded that the husband-wife founders of First Travel, Andika Surachman and Anniesa Hasibuan, be given 20-year prison sentences for financial fraud and money laundering after the travel agency failed to send 63,310 of its customers on the Umrah pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia that they had paid for.
“[We demand the court] punish the suspects with 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of IDR10 billion (US$712,504) or an additional one year and four months behind bars,” said public prosecutor Heri Jerman during the trial held at Depok District Court yesterday, as quoted by CNN Indonesia.
In addition, the prosecutors demanded 18 years and a IDR5 billion fine for the third suspect, Anniesa’s sister Kiki Hasibuan, who was the company’s financial director.
Whatever punishment the three suspects eventually receive likely won’t bring back the money lost by First Travel’s customers. Many of them spent huge portions of their savings to pay for the company’s discount Umrah pilgrimage travel packages. Data in the trial showed that First Travel robbed close to IDR905.3 billion from its customers in total.
The agency sold promotional Umrah tour packages at a relatively cheap (but unsustainable) price to its customers and only managed to send the first 14,000 of its customers on the pilgrimage, using revenue generated from subsequent customers, before their company went bust.
In addition, the First Travel bosses reportedly used their customers’ money to fund their lavish lifestyles, including Anniesa paying around US$200,000 to get her Muslim fashion line into New York Fashion Week last year, the couple buying luxurious houses and cars, spending IDR1.7 billion (US$125,000) during one trip to a mall and spending IDR400 million (US$29,000) on curtains, among others.
The Financial Services Authority (OJK) last month warned of potentially even more fraudulent travel agencies luring in customers with unrealistically low tour packages. In March, one travel agency in South Sulawesi was investigated by police for allegedly defrauding 50,000 of its Umrah customers out of around IDR1 trillion.
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