48. A piece of the action

District Court Judge Herman Alossitandi has the distinction of being the first judge arrested in Indonesia since the 1950s.  According to the Jakarta Post, the judge instructed a court clerk to demand 150 million rupiahs (about $15,000), although the clerk was so caught up with enthusiasm that he asked for 200 million.  The crowning twist of this graft-within-graft was that the money was demanded from "a key witness in a Rp 311 billion graft case involving a former head of the state social security agency, Jamsosteka."

The best part of the story is this juxtaposition:

A spokesman for the South Jakarta District Court, which has earned the reputation as the "dirtiest" district court in the capital, raised concern over the incident.

"This incident is shocking," Judge Johanes Suhadi said.

Cue Claude Rains.  In the blogosphere, Jakartass's Jan. 11 laconic comment reminds Western readers just how political judging can get in Indonesia.

The Post article doesn't give enough information to evaluate exactly what Judge Herman was doing.  Why would he demand money from a witness rather than a  party?  Perhaps the "key witness" was himself vulnerable or was relying on a grant of immunity. 

But the story reminded me of Brooklyn's Supreme Court Justice Victor Barron (a reminder: in New York, the Supreme Court is not a supreme court, but a trial court), who pled guilty to demanding a piece of the action before he would approve a settlement in a tort case involving a brain-damaged little girl.

I once heard someone say that the best way to make money is to be standing around when it changes hands.  That's how mergers and transactions lawyers work, and investment bankers, and all the other professionals who make the bongo bucks.  Judges such as Victor Barron and, it may be, Indonesia's Judge Herman spend long days hearing about vast sums of money changing hands.  Is it any wonder they occasionally find themselves daydreaming about tapping the pipeline?