OCCRP also reports that a company executive drafted a waste-storage permission document and that an internal memo described excluding protesters and their families from jobs.
Leaked internal records show that Indonesian nickel producer Harita Group planned or approved at least $389,000 in payments for politicians, community figures and military projects during 2013–2023, OCCRP reported on October 22. The emails, memos and invoices cover politicians’ flights, community leaders’ “incentives” and military support. The total records plans and approvals, not verified disbursements in every case; the purpose of some payments remains unclear.
The investigation follows the 2024 bribery convictions of Harita executive Stevi Thomas and an Indonesian governor. That case established that the governor received about $60,000 for facilitating Harita permits. The newly reported payment plans are not findings of bribery.
Harita is one of Indonesia’s largest nickel producers and supplies the chains serving major electric vehicle makers. It opened its Obi Island mine in 2010 and began building its first smelter there in 2015 to process nickel ore for stainless steel. Its facilities now surround Kawasi village, where residents have protested the company’s operations.
A 2020 Harita security memo said Kawasi village head Arifin Saroa would pass on information about residents suspected of organizing or joining protests. The document described using that information to reject those residents and their families for employment, OCCRP reported.
Four Kawasi residents told OCCRP that anyone seeking work with Harita or opportunities to sell supplies to it needed Saroa’s recommendation. They also alleged that the company offered financial incentives to people who complained about mining damage and that complainants faced intimidation. One resident said police visited people who refused to sell land to persuade and intimidate them.
A 2013 spreadsheet earmarked about $400 for Saroa. No connection has been established between that planned payment and the later assistance described in the security memo. Saroa could not be reached for comment.
In May 2016, Harita senior director Lalu Mahfi emailed a draft government decision permitting the company to store hazardous waste, saying he had compiled it himself. The document was intended for Bahrain Kasuba, then South Halmahera’s regent, or district head, to sign. Emails show Mahfi later removed a clause stating that legally required field verification had preceded the permit’s issuance, OCCRP reported.
Whether the district government issued the waste-storage permit in that form is unclear. Aryanto Nugroho, national coordinator of the transparency organization Publish What You Pay Indonesia, told OCCRP that drafting government decisions is a state function, not a task for the company being regulated. He said that if officials issued the permit as drafted without the verification clause, it could be revoked and the officials could face civil or criminal action.
Anti-corruption and mining experts told OCCRP that some planned payments could breach Indonesian rules on gifts to officials and the use of mining companies’ corporate social responsibility funds, which must benefit affected communities and wider society. Harita Group and the employees involved in approving payments did not respond to requests for comment. The Indonesian government also did not respond.
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