In the ongoing saga of Setya Novanto—Indonesia’s speaker of the house, notorious corruption suspect and meme generator extraordinaire—his lawyer, Fredrich Yunadi, has emerged as one of the drama’s most colorful characters. He has become famous for legally threatening anybody who says a bad word about his client, from social media users sharing satirical memes about #ThePowerOfSetNov to former Constitutional Court Chief Mahfud MD, whom Fredrich threatened to sue for saying Novanto had faked his car crash injuries.
In a widely-watched interview with former MetroTV reporter Najwa Shihab, Fredrich once again offered a full-throated defense of his client, describing Novanto’s poor health after he was arrested and detained by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for his role in the massive e-KTP graft scandal, which Fredrich says was a clear violation of his client’s rights. He said that he had reported 25 KPK investigators to the police for crimes against Novanto and added that he had reported 69 more social media accounts to the police for defamation (after getting one woman arrested for that crime last month).
But the part of the interview that stuck with many people was when Najwa asked Fredrich about what his usual fee was. Rather than answering directly, the lawyer instead said “I like luxury. If I go to another country, each time I go I spend at least IDR3 billion to 5 billion (US$221,000-370,000). And now I have a Hermes bag that I bought for IDR 1 billion. I like luxurious things.”
For some reason, Fredrich bragging about his multi-billion rupiah vacations didn’t sit well with some viewers and made them wonder if, perhaps, the lawyer for the politician charged in one of the country’s biggest corruption cases might not be entirely honest about his own finances. Some even sent clips of the video to Indonesia’s Directorate General of Tax (Ditjen Pajak) asking them to look into Fredrich’s personal tax compliance record.
In response, the official Ditjen Pajak Twitter account tweeted this:
Dear #KawanPajak.
Terima kasih untuk seluruh mention terkait video wawancara seorang pengacara.
Unit kami yang berwenang akan menindaklanjuti informasi tersebut.
🙏🏻
— #PajakKitaUntukKita (@DitjenPajakRI) November 25, 2017
Dear #FriendsOfTheTaxOffice,
Thanks to all who mentioned to us about an attorney’s video interview.
Our authorized unit will follow up the information.
Although the tweet was left slightly vague, Director General of Taxes Ken Dwijugiasteadi confirmed that his office would be looking into Fredrich’s tax information, including rumors that the lawyer does not have a proper Taxpayer Identification Number (NPWP).
“We are still being careful, usually if they don’t have an NPWP we will do an inspection and investigation,” Ken said today as quoted by Detik.
And that, kids, is why you shouldn’t brag about yourself and your multi-billion rupiah vacations on national television.
