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Freeport denounces extortion bid as focus settles on House speaker Setya
Jakarta Globe - November 16, 2015
Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said on Monday lodged a complaint against an unnamed legislator, including submitting wiretapped phone conversations purportedly showing the legislator demanding a 20 percent stake in Freeport Indonesia, the country's single-biggest taxpayer.
Neither the minister nor the House would reveal the identity of the legislator in question, although speculation is settling on Setya, from the Golkar Party.
Freeport Indonesia spokesman Riza Pratama said the company was the first to alert the minister to the attempted shakedown, saying that "such practices cannot be tolerated by our company."
Sudirman, in his complaint, alleges that the legislator approached officials from Freeport Indonesia on the pretext of representing President Joko Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
The miner's parent company, Arizona-based Freeport-McMoRan, is required to divest its current 90.64 percent holding in Freeport Indonesia to 70 percent. Sudirman alleges that the legislator demanded that those shares be divested through him.
While all sides are staying tight-lipped about the perpetrator's identity, attention is focusing Setya, a Golkar stalwart who has already been admonished once this year by the House Ethics Council, for appearing at a campaign rally in New York for US presidential hopeful Donald Trump.
Setya was seen leaving Vice President Kalla's office on Monday afternoon, soon after Sudirman lodged his complaint. Quizzed by reporters on his way out, Setya did not deny that he was the one who met with executives from Freeport, but refuted allegations that he had claimed to be representing Joko and Kalla at the meetings.
"I never exploited this issue for any other interests [than national ones]. I never brought up the president or vice president's names," he said.
Responding to Sudirman's filing of the complaint, Setya said, "Of course I respect whatever he does. Hopefully I didn't do any of the things alleged [in the complaint]."
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