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The case broker at the center of the leadership crisis at the Corruption Eradication Commission in late 2009 was sentenced on Tuesday to five years in prison for attempted bribery.

The Anti-Corruption Court found Ary Muladi guilty of trying to bribe two deputy chairmen from the commission, also known as the KPK, with Rp 5.1 billion ($600,000) in 2009 to derail an investigation into businessman Anggoro Widjojo.

Anggodo, Anggoro’s brother, is currently serving a 10-year jail term for putting up the funds used in the bribery.

Ary must also pay Rp 250 million or serve an additional six months behind bars.

The sentence and the fine met prosecutors’ demands, even though Ary was cleared of an obstruction of justice charge.

Presiding judge Nani Indrawati, however, delivered a dissenting opinion on that decision, saying that she believed Ary should have been convicted on all charges.

According to Nani, Ary’s claim that he had channeled the money to Chandra M. Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto was the sole basis for the police declaring them as suspects, which hampered the KPK’s investigation into Anggoro.

Ary had initially claimed that he personally delivered the bribe to Bibit and Chandra at the request of Anggoro. He later recanted, saying that he had in fact given the money to a mysterious middleman identified as Yunianto.

However, the intermediary never surfaced, and Ary had once again backed off his statement. He has a week to decide if he will appeal the ruling.

The naming of the KPK deputies as bribery suspects evolved into a major scandal that captured the nation’s attention for most of last year.

The police investigation into the pair resulted in them being temporarily suspended from their senior positions at the KPK.

In November 2009, the commissioners lodged a motion at the Constitutional Court to contest the charges, presenting to the court wiretapped conversations involving Anggodo and elements from the National Police and Attorney General’s Office discussing an alleged plot to bring Bibit and Chandra down.

The widespread public outrage forced the deputy attorney general, Abdul Hakim Ritonga, to step down and resulted in the National Police’s chief of detectives, Susno Duadji, being removed from his post.

Ary has offered an apology to Bibit and Chandra for making the bribery claim.