The Indonesian Central Bank (BI) has confirmed the police’s findings of fake money production and a fake certificate of Government Securities (SBN) worth nearly Rp700 trillion (US$43.3 billion) and a BI deposit worth Rp45 trillion, within the Alauddin State Islamic University (UIN) of Makassar compound, South Sulawesi.
Marlison Hakim, BI’s Executive Director of Money Management Department, said the Rp745 trillion worth certificates are fake certificates and not fake money.
He said that the printing of counterfeit money in Gowa had only been carried out since May 2024, while the year 2010 was only the initial plan of the perpetrators.
He also clarified that the printing of counterfeit money at UIN Makassar had not been carried out since 2010.
He also said that based on observations, the machines used to print the fake money were ordinary printing machines and ordinary paper offset machines, not those specific for printing money.
“The newly purchased machine (a Chinese brand that was showcased in various media) has not been used at all in printing counterfeit money. The counterfeit money uses an old screen printing machine,” he said on Monday, December 30, 2024.
Marlison ensures that the quality of counterfeit money produced is very low and very easy to identify with the naked eye using the ‘3D’ method (seen, touched and held up to the light).
The police found evidence of fake money production in the UIN Makassar on Friday, December 20, 2024. The modus operandi involved several individuals from the campus and state-owned bank employees.
The police cited that the process began with the manufacturing of fake money at the residence of the perpetrator, identified as ASS, who had been on the police’s Wanted List (DPO) in Makassar since 2010. ASS is suspected of being the donor of the counterfeit money factory.
The suspects and those who have been arrested bought a larger printing machine. The machine was smuggled into the UIN Makassar’s library with the help of the Head of the Library, Andi Ibrahim (AI), in September 2024. Andi Ibrahim, who had also been named a suspect, has been dismissed from his position.
“The large machine worth Rp600 million was purchased in Surabaya, but ordered from China. It was secretly put into the building, namely the library, by one of the suspects, AI,” Chief of the Gowa Police, Adjunct Senior Commissioner Reonald Truly Sohumuntal Simanjuntak, said on December 20, 2024.
After the counterfeit money machine was in the UIN Makassar campus room, the process of making counterfeit money on a large scale was carried out by the suspects.
So far the police have arrested 17 people and named them as suspects.
