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As businessman Anggodo Widjojo went from police witness to household name after the release of tapes tied to the nation’s anticorruption commission scandal, millions wondered how an ordinary man managed to manipulate the National Police and the Attorney General’s Office.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), had been investigating PT Masaro Radiokom, owned by Anggodo’s fugitive brother Anggoro, after uncovering evidence that the telecommunications firm had caused the state losses in a Ministry of Forestry project in 2006.

The KPK declared Anggoro a suspect in connection with bribery allegations involving members of the House of Representatives Commission IV on forestry and agriculture, who were later sentenced to prison. Anggoro, however, managed to flee to Singapore.

People making a living by brokering deals between public servants and men like Anggoro is nothing new in Indonesia.

However, the taped conversations played in the Constitutional Court on Tuesday appear to confirm rumors of the critical role played by a markus, the local term for a case broker, used to manipulate law enforcers to engineer criminal cases based on weak evidence.

“People were disgusted when the tape told of how the markus operates,” said Danang Widoyoko, coordinator of Indonesian Corruption Watch.

The tapes gave detailed descriptions of two such alleged brokers: Ary Mulyadi, a businessman from Surabaya, East Java, and Yuliana Ong Gunawan, who according to Anggodo is a neurologist.

Anggodo said Ary gave bribe money to KPK deputy chairmen Chandra M Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto, to allow Anggoro to flee the country before being arrested.

A female voice on the tapes, believed to be Yuliana, claims to have secured support from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for the effort to weaken the KPK.

Her alleged role shows that case brokers themselves aren’t necessarily rich people who pay bribes to protect their own narrow interests.

“They could be anyone. Businesspeople, prosecutors, court clerks or journalists. Anybody. One thing is for sure. They have a strong network with politicians and law enforcers,” Danang said.

Neta S Pane, the head of Indonesian Police Watch, agreed, saying that case brokers normally build relationships with a wide number of police officials over a long period of time.

“They use their relations with law enforcers to help someone out of legal hassles in return for a huge sum of money,” he said.

These brokers are mostly “untouchable” except in certain high-profile cases handled by the KPK, such as the one involving businesswoman Artalyta Suryani, who was convicted and jailed for bribing a prosecutor who handled a graft scandal involving tycoon Sjamsul Nursalim. And of course, Ary, who has been named a suspect for extorting money from Anggoro.

In 2003, for example, there was a bribery case involving Samuel Ismoko, a police general. Rudi Sutopo, a suspect in a Rp 1.7 trillion ($178.5 million) corruption scandal, revealed that he gave Ismoko Rp 500 million to help him out of trouble with the help of a case broker named Ishak.

Rudy was later jailed.

Ismoko faced a police ethics tribunal and was suspended from his position as director of the National Police’s Financial Crimes Unit. Ishak, meanwhile, quietly faded from public attention as well as prosecution.

In 2002, ICW released a report titled “Unveiling the Judicial Mafia”, which it said involves elements of the police, courts, law firms, prosecutors and prisons.

“No matter how small the power of a court official, it has the potential of becoming a commodity to fuel corruption,” the report said.

Within the National Police, the practice includes smoothing the processing of vehicle documents, bailing out suspects, doctoring evidence, and dismissing or reducing charges against suspects, according to the report.

Within prosecutors’ offices and the Attorney General’s Office, it usually involves reducing charges or sentence demands against defendants in court, while judges can hand down a “lighter” sentence or, even, an acquittal.

“It’s not an easy thing to eradicate corruption in this country, particularly when it involves the police, prosecutors and court officials. They will unite to bar attempts to clean up their institutions,” Danang said. “But we have no other option. The president must be firm in reforming them.”