He is among 80 people said to be involved in the scheme that has allegedly seen some $170 million of public money slip into the hands of Indonesian officials and their associates.

Indonesia’s corruption watchdog has arrested one of the country’s most powerful politicians, who for weeks had evaded questions surrounding his alleged role in the theft of $170 million of public cash. 

Setya Novanto, speaker of Indonesia’s House of Representatives, was last week involved in a car crash and admitted to hospital a day after he had evaded arrest in a police raid on his home. 

He is accused of being among 80 people, mostly officials and politicians, who used a $440 million electronic identity card system to steal more than a third of the funds. 

Novanto has denied any wrongdoing. 

His lawyer, Fredrich Yunadi, said he was badly injured in the car crash, but Corruption Eradications Commission spokesperson Febri Diansyah said yesterday that an independent panel of doctors concluded there was no need for him to be hospitalised further. 

Diansyah said Novanto was moved to a detention centre about midnight Sunday. He will be detained for 20 days to assist with the commission’s investigation. 

The car crash sparked a wave of incredulity in Indonesia, as some saw it as a bold move to block the investigation. However, the incident was found to be an accident, media cited Jakarta’s deputy director of traffic police as saying, cooling speculation that it was staged. 

Although Novanto has consistently denied wrongdoing, he has repeatedly missed summonses for questioning by the commission in recent months, claiming he was ill and needed heart surgery.

The commission is probing state losses of some $170 million after allegations that sums ranging from $5,000 to $5.5 million generated by marking up procurement costs for the ID cards were divvied up among politicians. 

Novanto was named as a suspect on 10 November after he had used a pre-trial motion to get earlier charges against him dropped last month. 

Meanwhile in the US, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been investigating the actions of Johannes Marliem, a US-based contractor for the ID card scheme, who later committed suicide. 

In September 2015, Novanto made an unexpected appearance at the future US President Donald Trump’s news conference at Trump Tower in New York. Trump hailed him as a “great man” who would do great things for the US. 

Corruption scandals in Asia have hit the private banking industry in the region and further afield, as shown by illicit transactions involving 1MDB, the state-run Malaysian fund. Singapore, for example, expelled BSI and Falcon Private Bank from the Asian city-state because of serious failings on anti-money laundering processes. Such cases have shone a brighter light on the treatment of politically-esposed persons and the level of due diligence around such individuals. 

Ironically, Indonesia has conducted a large tax amnesty programme - which concluded in late March this year - designed to bring money back onshore from centres such as Singapore.