Indonesian Anti-Graft Agency Seizes More Than Rp 6 Billion ($338,000) from Bali Immigration Officials over Residency Permit Extortion

JakartaHits.id — Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission, the country’s top anti-graft agency known locally as KPK, said it had seized more than 6 billion rupiah, or roughly $338,000, in cash tied to three immigration officials in Bali, as part of a widening investigation into the extortion of foreign nationals applying for residency permits.

Foreign nationals living in Indonesia are typically unaware they are targets of the scheme because they rarely deal with immigration officers directly. Instead, they work through third-party document-service agencies, known locally as biro jasa, which handle visa and permit paperwork on their behalf. Investigators allege these agencies inflate the fees charged to foreign clients, then funnel the difference between the official and inflated rates to immigration officials as illegal payments.

KPK spokesman Budi Prasetyo said investigators seized the cash while questioning three Bali immigration officials Friday, August 28, 2026, at the Denpasar Police headquarters. “During this questioning, investigators also confiscated a sum of money received by the officials, amounting to more than 6 billion rupiah,” Budi said in an official statement.

The seized funds are believed to be linked to payments received during the processing of foreign nationals’ residency permits, Budi said.

The three officials questioned were the head of the Denpasar Immigration Office, the head of the Residency Permit and Immigration Status Section, and the head of the Immigration Traffic and Residency Permit Section at the Singaraja Immigration Office. The questioning in Denpasar was part of a broader corruption probe into residency-permit processing at Indonesia’s Ministry of Immigration and Corrections, known locally as Imipas, covering the period from 2022 to 2026.

In that case, KPK has already named former Deputy Minister of Immigration and Corrections Silmy Karim and seven other officials from the Directorate General of Immigration as suspects.

The Bali questioning follows an earlier line of inquiry in which KPK investigators examined allegations that document-service agencies made payments to immigration officers at the Ngurah Rai and Denpasar immigration offices in Bali that exceeded Indonesia’s official Non-Tax State Revenue tariff, known locally as PNBP.

“If document-service agencies do not hand over that money at the service counter, then applications for a Limited Stay Permit Card, a Permanent Stay Permit Card, or other permits will be made difficult to process and will not be ‘clicked’ forward in the system,” Budi said Friday, June 26, 2026. (*)