A court in Depok, Jakarta has handed down lengthy prison sentences to two travel agency directors after they were convicted of a huge travel fraud scheme.
First Travel president directorl, Andika Surachman was given 20 years and his wife, director Anniesa Hasibuan, who is also a well-known Indonesian fashion designer, was sentenced to 18 years.
A third defendant, finance director of First Travel Siti Nuraida, had earlier been handed a 18-year prison term.
First Travel defrauded more than 60,000 Haj pilgrims resulting in client losses of about $65 million, in one of the biggest ever travel fraud cases recorded.
The prosecution team brought testimony from 96 witnesses during the case which sought to prove allegations of fraud and money laundering.
Clients were offered cheap minor haj ‘Umrah’ travel packages to Mecca priced at around $1,000 that never materialised after paying a deposit.
The price was actually below cost.
"In the trial, the defendants explained that, from the beginning, they realised that the Umrah 2017 promo package of IDR14.3 million (US$1,000) was not enough to pay for the package they offered, but the defendants still offered the umrah packages anyway so they could attract more potential pilgrims to register and pay, " the sentencing judge said.
First Travel used deposits from later bookings to pay for the shortfall.
This allowed about 30,000 to travel on valid packages but left another 63,000 losing their paid deposits.
