Hary Tanoesoedibjo, Donald Trump’s globetrotting Indonesian business partner, has been banned by Jakarta authorities from travelling internationally after sending allegedly threatening texts to Indonesia’s deputy attorney-general. Mr Tanoesoedibjo, a billionaire media mogul who is developing two luxury resorts in Indonesia with the Trump Organisation, denies that the texts sent to Yulianto, a deputy attorney-general, were threatening. One of the text messages read: “We will eventually prove who is wrong and who is right. Who is a professional and who is a thug. You have to remember that power will not last for ever.” Mr Tanoesoedibjo did not immediately respond when reached for comment, although in media interviews he has repeatedly denied that the text messages were intended to threaten. “A threat isn’t like that. If I become a leader, I’ll kill you, now that’s threatening,” Mr Tanoesoedibjo told Kompas.com, an Indonesian news website earlier this month. In 2015, Mr Trump signed an agreement with Mr Tanoesoedibjo for the Trump Organisation to manage two golf and hotel resorts being developed by Mr Tanoesoedibjo’s MNC Group at a cost of $500m-$1bn. A brash billionaire with a glamorous wife and sky-high political ambitions, Mr Tanoesoedibjo is often compared with Mr Trump, whose inauguration he attended in January. Mr Tanoesoedibjo has said he is considering running for president but his chances are likely to be hampered by his minority status as an ethnic-Chinese Christian. He ran unsuccessfully for vice-president in 2014 before founding the United Indonesia Party in 2015.
Source: ft
The travel ban suggests police are beginning to pursue the case seriously, as the text messages were first reported more than a year and a half ago. If the case proceeds it will probably prompt greater scrutiny into Mr Tanoesoedibjo’s business affairs. Mr Tanoesoedibjo’s text messages to Mr Yulianto were reported to the police last January, not long after the attorney-general’s office named Mr Tanoesoedibjo a witness into a corruption case involving PT Mobile-8 Telecom, a telecommunications company he owned. The billionaire has denied all involvement with the alleged tax restitution fraud that was committed at the company from 2007 to 2009. The attorney-general’s office called in Mr Tanoesoedibjo for questioning last week in relation to the case but he failed to show, angering investigators. Mr Tanoesoedibjo has repeatedly stated that the legal efforts against him are politically motivated. Muhammad Prasetyo, Indonesia’s attorney-general, is a supporter of Surya Paloh, a media mogul and political party boss who fell out with Mr Tanoesoedibjo in 2013, when Mr Tanoesoedibjo’s left Mr Paloh’s political party, the National Democrats.
