Djoko Tjandra

Djoko Soegiarto Tjandra (Tjan Kok Hui, also spelled Chan Kok Hin; ) alias Joe Chan is a Chinese Indonesian businessman and corruption felon.

He and his brothers founded the Mulia Group of companies.

Tjandra was born on 27 August 1951 in Sanggau, West Kalimantan, to Tjandra Kusuma (father) and Ho Yauw Hiang (mother).

He has seven siblings.

He is married to Anna Boentaran and they have three daughters: Joanne Soegiarto Tjandranegara, Jocelyne Soegiarto Tjandra and Jovita Soegiarto Tjandra.

When he was 17, Tjandra traveled to Irian Jaya (now Papua province), where in 1968 he opened a grocery store named Toko Sama-Sama in the provincial capital, Jayapura.

Tjandra was a key figure in the Mulia Group, which started as PT Mulialand, founded in the early 1970s by Tjandra Kusuma (Tjan Boen Hwa) and three of his children: Eka Tjandranegara (Tjan Kok Hui), Gunawan Tjandra (Tjan Kok Kwang) and Djoko Tjandra.

Mulialand is involved in construction and property.

The luxury properties it developed include Mulia Senayan Hotel, Wisma Mulia, Menara Mulia, Wisma GKBI, Menara Mulia Plaza 89, Plaza Kuningan, and Taman Anggrek apartments.

He opened a distribution business in Melbourne in 1974.

In 1975, he founded PT Bersama Mulia, a contracting company, in Jakarta.

Three years later, as an expert for PT Jaya Supplies Indonesia, he gained projects from state oil company Pertamina, state electricity company PLN and the Industry Ministry.

Over 1979–81, he developed Belawan power plant in North Sumatra, expanded an oil refinery in Balikpapan, developed a Hydrocracking Complex in Dumai, an oil refinery in Cilacap, and Kaltim fertilizer in Bontang, East Kalimantan.

In 1983, he entered the property sector, developing office blocks.

Among his projects were Lippo Life building, Kuningan Plaza and BCA Plaza.

He was also involved in the development of Mal Taman Anggrek, which was once the largest mall in Southeast Asia.

On 5 November 1986, Mulia Industrindo, was founded.

It has manufacturing subsidiaries in glass and ceramics.

On 11 February 1999, Tjandra attended a meeting at his Hotel Mulia in Jakarta to discuss efforts by Bank Bali to collect Rp904 billion owed by three banks taken over by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA).

Tjandra was present in his capacity as director of Era Giat Prima, a company which collected a commission of Rp546 billion for IBRA releasing the funds.

Some Rp274 billion of the commission money was transferred to Tjandra's account at BNI Kuningan, while part of the money was transferred to Indonesian officials and legislators.

After news of the "Baligate" scandal broke in late July 1999, Tjandra was investigated by the police and the Attorney General's Office.

He was detained on 29 September 1999 and later placed under house arrest.

He went on trial at South Jakarta District Court on 9 February 2000, charged with corruption for "arranging and engaging in illegal transactions".

Prosecutors demanded an 18-month sentence, but he was acquitted on 6 March 2000, with the deputy presiding judge ruling the case should have been heard by a civil court.

On 31 March 2000, Jakarta High Court ordered South Jakarta District Court to examine and try Tjandra.

He went back on trial in April 2000 and was acquitted on 28 August 2000.

Judges said although the prosecutor's indictment of Tjandra's actions was proven legally, the action was not a criminal offense but a civil action.

Prosecutors appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld Tjandra's innocence in a ruling on 26 June 2001.

In October 2008, the Attorney General's Office filed for a Supreme Court judicial review of Tjandra's acquittal.

In 2009, he fled to Papua New Guinea one day before he was sentenced to jail for his role in the embezzlement of banking funds.

The day before the verdict was handed down, Tjandra on 10 June 2009 flew on a chartered plane from Jakarta's Halim Perdanakusuma Airport to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

On 11 June 2009, the Supreme Court gave Tjandra a two-year prison sentence.

He was later declared a fugitive.

Djoko Tjandra visited Port Moresby on 27 February 2009 and was granted an APEC Business Travel Permit.

In March 2016, Tjandra's wife Anna Boentaran visited Indonesia's Constitutional Court and applied for a judicial review of Article 263, Chapter 1, Law No.8 of 1981 on the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP).

On 12 May 2016, the Constitutional Court granted her request, withdrawing the Criminal Code article that had allowed prosecutors to request a review of a court decision with permanent legal force.

After that decision, then-Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo was called to a meeting by chief security minister Wiranto, who wanted him to study a recommendation to clear Tjandra from his legal entanglement.

Prasetyo declined to arrange amnesty for Tjandra.

After 11 years on the run, he was arrested in Malaysia in July 2020 and sent to Indonesia, where he was later jailed for bribing police and a public prosecutor.