An escalating institutional conflict between Indonesia’s National Police and the Attorney General’s Office has reached a boiling point amid a nationwide corruption scandal tied to recent rolling power blackouts. Febrie Adriansyah, the Assistant Attorney General for Special Crimes, officially resigned on Saturday. His departure comes directly after police raided multiple properties tied to him, seizing 74 kilograms of gold bars and roughly $20 million in mixed currencies.
Officers executed the sweeps on July 8 and 9 across Greater Jakarta. They targeted his luxury residence in Sentul, Bogor, and a commercial venue in South Jakarta. Investigators focused heavily on De’Clan Signature Cafe, a site that details the recovery of the illicit wealth, where they breached a concealed steel safe to extract the cash and gold. The $20 million was stored in a mix of US Dollars, Singapore Dollars, Saudi Riyals, and Indonesian Rupiah.
The Attorney General’s Office stated they accepted Febrie’s departure to preserve the integrity and objectivity of their law enforcement operations. This formal acknowledgment confirms his official resignation following the highly publicized police sweeps. Before stepping down, Febrie explicitly denied any wrongdoing regarding the seized assets.
But this isn’t an isolated cash seizure. The police operations tie directly to sprawling financial investigations involving state insurers Asabri and Jiwasraya. More critically, the probes intersect with alleged corruption in coal procurement for PLN, the state power company. Authorities say that specific graft network directly caused the rolling electricity blackouts currently frustrating the country.
The timing of the raids exposes severe friction within Indonesia’s justice system. Before his exit, Febrie was managing highly sensitive dockets. He was actively probing the National Nutrition Agency, the organization tasked with executing President Prabowo Subianto’s contested free school meals program. He had also recently directed corruption investigations into Gojek founder Nadiem Makarim and former trade minister Thomas Lembong. And the South Jakarta cafe where police found the safe? That is the exact location where Densus 88, the police’s elite counterterrorism unit, allegedly placed Febrie under surveillance earlier in 2024. His sudden exit effectively decapitates several highly sensitive investigations right as they reach the highest levels of government.