Hutomo Mandala Putra (born 15 July 1962), commonly known as Tommy Suharto, is an Indonesian businessman and politician. The youngest son of Suharto, the second President of Indonesia, he has long had a reputation of nepotism and corruption. Following the end of his father's regime, he gained notoriety for orchestrating the assassination of a judge who convicted him of corruption. He was convicted of murder in 2002 and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, but was paroled in under four years.The Economist "Lucky Tommy," The Economist 2 November 2006.
Since 2020, he has been involved in a leadership dispute with Muchdi Purwopranjono over control of the Berkarya Party.
Early life Tommy was born in Jakarta on 15 July 1962, the fifth child of Major-General Suharto and Siti Hartinah, better known as Ibu (Mrs) Tien. His siblings are Siti Hardiyanti Astuti 'Tutut' Rukmana, Sigit Harjojudanto, Bambang Trihatmodjo, Siti 'Titiek' Hediati and Siti Hutami 'Mamiek' Endang Adiningsih.
His middle name comes from the Indonesian military's Mandala Command for the Liberation of West Irian (Komando Mandala Pembebasan Irian Barat), which was formed in January 1962 and led by Major-General Suharto with the aim of removing the Dutch from the territory of Netherlands New Guinea (West Papua). Suharto wrote in his autobiography that Tommy's middle name served as a reminder of the Mandala assignment.
On 27 September 1965, when he was three years old, Tommy suffered injuries from boiling water to his face and body. He had been playing with his younger sister Mamiek in the family's house on Jalan Haji Agus Salim in Central Jakarta when he ran into his mother, who was carrying into the dining room a pot of boiling hot oxtail soup, which washed over Tommy. His mother immediately applied a cod liver salve to his blistered skin. He was rushed to the Gatot Soebroto Army Hospital in nearby Senen neighborhood. For the next three nights, Suharto visited Tommy at the hospital.
The timing of this injury is significant in the context of Indonesian history because on the night of 30 September 1965, an abortive coup attempt was launched by elements of the military, shooting dead six generals at about 4am on 1 October. Before the killings took place, Suharto was still at the hospital. At about midnight, Tien urged Suharto to return home to check on Mamiek, who had been left with a servant. He went home about 12.15am and went to bed and was awoken at about 4.30am by news of the shootings. Tommy and his mother left the hospital on the afternoon of 1 October, accompanied by Suharto's half-brother Probosutedjo and aide-de-camp (ADC) Wahyudi. Tommy and his siblings were then moved to the ADC’s residence in Kebayoran Baru, as it was considered safer.
After completing junior high school in Jakarta, Tommy studied at the Civil Aviation Academy. He then went to the United States to study agriculture but did not complete his studies. He returned to Indonesia to start his business career.
It has often been said that Tommy was the favorite son of the family. Tien’s 1992 authorized biography states, "What sets Tommy apart from his elder brothers Sigit and Bambang, is that he has a more agile disposition. Tommy, who sports a mustache, is never without his RayBan sunglasses. At 28 years of age, he is the splitting [sic] image of his father. Deep in his heart, he cherishes great admiration for his mother."
As a young man, Tommy was known for his fondness for actresses, nightclubs and casinos. Time magazine in 1999 alleged that Tommy loved gambling and thought nothing of losing $1 million in a single sitting.
Business and nepotism In 1984, at age 22, he founded the Humpuss Group. With $100,000 of seed capital and within 10 weeks of its founding his group had 20 subsidiaries, which later grew to 60. The Humpuss Group initially focused on energy transportation, particularly LNG (liquefied natural gas). The company grew rapidly, relying on its shipping fleet and expanding into other business sectors such as petrochemicals, agribusiness, and property. Under Tommy Soeharto's leadership, the Humpuss Group was known for its aggressive diversification strategy. Tommy directed the company to enter various strategic sectors, capitalizing on opportunities in both domestic and international markets. Its primary focus was energy transportation, which remains one of the company's key strengths, through PT Humpuss Intermoda Transportasi Tbk. The fact that Tommy was no longer a member of the government after Soeharto's fall significantly impacted Humpuss' business. Several major government-backed projects stalled, and the company had to adapt its business strategy to survive.
Oil In 1985, Tommy acquired a 65% stake in Perta Oil Marketing, a subsidiary of state oil and gas company Pertamina. He and his older brother Bambang Trihatmodjo received commissions of $0.30 to $0.35 a barrel. Perta brought in profits of $1 million per month.
Tommy and Bambang were alleged by a former business associate to have imposed "unofficial markups on oil exports and imports, reaping up to $200 million a year in the 1980s."
Sempati Air In 1989, Tommy and Suharto associate Bob Hasan bought PT Sempati Air Transport from a military company. In the 1990s, Sempati Air (as it was renamed) flew wealthy Indonesians to a popular gambling resort on Australia's Christmas Island. The resort's main investor, Robby Sumanpow, was the marketing director of Tommy's clove monopoly. Sempati Air folded in 1998 during the financial crisis. When Suharto was charged in 2000 with corruption over the misuse of funds from charitable foundations, the indictment stated that Sempati Air had received Rp 17.91 billion from Dakab foundation, Rp 13.17 billion from Supersemar foundation and Rp 11.168 billion from Dharmais foundation.
Merak Toll Road In 1989, Tommy formed a consortium, Marga Mandala Sakti (MMS), which lost a bid to his sister Tutut’s company to build Jakarta’s north harbor toll road, the North-South Link. MMS was however awarded the right to extend the Jakarta-Tangerang expressway another 73 km to the busy seaport of Merak. Humpuss constructed the toll road over 1992 to 1996. Tommy’s concession was in 1996 extended by 10 years to 2011. A consortium of foreign investors in late 1996 or early 1997 paid about Rp 425 billion ($181 million) for a majority stake in MMS.
Clove monopoly In December 1990, Tommy established a clove trading monopoly, the Clove Support and Trading Board (BPPC), despite opposition from clove cigarette manufacturers. Under a Trade Ministry regulation, all local cigarette manufacturers were forced to buy from BPPC, which also controlled clove imports from other countries. A subsequent investigation found that Tommy forced clove farmers to sell at reduced prices and then sold the cloves to the cigarette industry at inflated prices. While Tommy profited, many clove farmers went bankrupt. The monopoly was dismantled in 1998 as part of the International Monetary Fund's package to bail out the Indonesian economy.
In July 2007, Tommy was named a suspect in a 175 billion rupiah corruption case involving BPPC. Then-attorney general Hendarman Supandji said Tommy misused loan money given to the agency to buy cloves from farmers. Tommy denied wrongdoing. In 2008, the Attorney General's Office dropped the case on the grounds that Tommy had repaid the money.
Golden Key scandal In the early 1990s, Tommy acquired shares in one of three petrochemical plants proposed by Golden Key, a Jakarta-based company headed by businessman Eddy Tansil. The state-owned (Bapindo) was pressured to provide 16 loans totalling $430 million to Tansil to build the plants, even though he had no experience in petrochemicals and provided no collateral. Bapindo did not check his creditworthiness. The plants were never built and Bapindo was left with bad loans. According to a June 1994 article by the Far Eastern Economic Review, Tommy was the alleged go-between, who introduced Tansil to Bapindo officials. Before the scandal broke in 1994, Tommy had the previous year sold his shares back to other owners of the company. Tommy was not summoned as a witness at the trial of Tansil, who was in August 1994 sentenced to 17 years in jail and then "escaped" in 1996 and left Indonesia. The fact that Tommy had been a co-owner of the company when it obtained the loans and then sold his stake after part of the loans had been drawn upon in cash was not mentioned during the trials of Tansil and Bapindo officials.
Lamborghini In 1994, Tommy's Bermuda-registered company Megatech, which is co-owned by Malaysian firm Mycom Setdco, purchased Italian sports car maker Lamborghini from Chrysler Corp. for $40 million. Megatech sold Lamborghini to Audi AG for $110 million during Indonesia's 1998 financial crisis.
Timor
In February 1996, president Suharto announced Indonesia's "National Car" policy, in which a company intending to produce a national car would be exempted from duties and luxury tax, and tariffs on imported spare parts. The only company allowed to benefit from the policy was Tommy's newly created PT Timor Putra Nasional. Japan, the US and the European Union complained to the World Trade Organization that Indonesia had violated WTO rules on equal treatment. Tommy was allowed to import 45,000 fully built Kia Sephia cars from South Korea and rebadged them as Timor cars.
In July 1997, state and private banks were encouraged by the government to provide a $650 million loan to Tommy to build a national car factory. On 23 September 1997, in response to the Asian Financial Crisis, Finance Minister Mar’ie Muhammad halted fifteen "mega" projects, but the Timor national car was absent from the list, prompting claims it was "untouchable". In January 1998, Suharto ended the Timor's tax breaks in line with reforms imposed by the IMF. Timor showrooms were subsequently targeted in the 13–15 May 1998 riots that precipitated Suharto's resignation.
The debts of PT Timor Putra Nasional (TPN) held by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency amounted to Rp4.2 trillion. Tommy's Humpuss Group allegedly sponsored a company named PT Vista Bella to buy back TPN's debts on 30 April 2003 for Rp 512 billion, although under the sale agreement, the purchaser cannot be affiliated with the original owner.
The Finance Ministry and state-owned Bank Mandiri in January 2005 froze a TPN account containing some Rp 1.3 trillion as collateral against the Rp 4.2 trillion that Timor owed to Bank Mandiri. Tommy responded by suing Mandiri and the Finance Ministry. In November 2006, South Jakarta District Court ruled Timor the rightful owner of the Rp 1.3 trillion in the Bank Mandiri account. In November 2007, Jakarta High Court annulled the lower court's ruling. On 28 August 2008, Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati stated that Bank Mandiri had been directed to transfer Rp1.23 trillion (US$134 million) of funds owned by TPN to a government account.
Tommy appealed twice to the Supreme Court, which on 13 December 2017 rejected his second appeal. The judgment was not sent to the court until 4 July 2018 and was not reported by the Indonesian media until January 2020, when the government announced it was entitled to the frozen funds.
Previously, the Finance Ministry had filed a graft case alleging Tommy illegally sold assets from Timor to five of his companies. Tommy responded by filing a US$21.8 million countersuit against the ministry. He won a separate US$61 million civil corruption case in February 2008, receiving US$550,000 in a countersuit. afp.google.com, Indonesia seizes 134 million dollars from Suharto son: report
Bali land scandal