After police arrested a series of Indonesian officials accused of taking bribes from gambling website operators, a video made the rounds on TikTok allegedly showing wads of cash discovered during a raid on their office. The film materialViewed millions of times, it actually shows cash seized from a company under investigation for money laundering.
The footage shows a group of men in red uniforms searching the drawers to reveal wads of cash hidden inside.
“Viral video of Budi Arie office staff raided by police found astonishing amount of money!” read a TikTok post where the clip was shared on November 12.
Ten employees of the Indonesian Ministry of Communications and Digital Affairs, previously headed by Budi Arie Setiadi — were arrested for allegedly taking bribes from online gambling site operators to help them evade a government ban, police said Nov. 1 (archived link).
Seven other people have been arrested in the case since November 13.
“It’s really crazy that Budi Arie’s special staff office was raided by police and an incredible amount of money was found,” the TikTok post added, quoting Indonesian politician Ahmad Sahroni.
Sahroni shared the video along with similar claims on Instagram.
Screenshot of the fake TikTok post taken on November 13, 2024
The video was viewed more than nine million times in a similar post on TikTok and was also distributed on YouTube.
The posts sparked a wave of responses from social media users who seemed to believe the video really showed a raid on the ministry.
“Arrest Budi Arie,” someone wrote.
“Which government can we trust anymore?” said another.
$50 million seizure of cash
While Indonesian police actually searched the Ministry of Communications and Digital Affairs on November 1, the footage shared on TikTok shows another operation (archived link).
A keyword search on YouTube found similar footage in an October 3 news story posted by Indonesian channel Metro TV (archived link).
According to the report, a series of raids by the Public Prosecution Service on the properties of the Duta Palma Group, a company involved in palm oil plantations, led to the seizure of 822 billion Indonesian rupiah ($51.8 million).
Metro TV’s YouTube video shows the same search from a different angle.
The same men in red uniforms – bearing the logo of the Indonesian Public Prosecution Service – can be seen in both videos, next to the same drawers full of cash.
Below is a comparison of the video shared in fake posts (left) and Video from Metro TV (center and right)highlighting the similarities.
Comparison of the video shared in fake posts (left) and the Metro TV video (middle and right), highlighting the similarities
The prosecutor’s office then said that a new attack on the company – which was suspected of money laundering – increased the total cash seized to 1.1 trillion rupiah (archived link).
A spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service confirmed that the video was not related to the ministry’s gambling case.
“The video shows a search carried out by our men in another case involving investigations into money laundering by a company called Duta Palma,” said Harli Siregar, head of the Public Prosecution Service. spokesman told AFP on November 13.
