Indonesia has for weeks been transfixed by a corruption scandal involving a provincial governor, accused of spending tens of millions of dollars in foreign casinos despite an official salary of less than AUD$1,000 a month.
Now the scandal has spread to Australia, where Indonesian investigators confirmed they were examining transactions at the Crown Casino in Perth, and suspicious bank deposits in Perth and Melbourne.
The accusations are among a series of explosive allegations against Lukas Enembe, who has been the governor of Indonesia's Papua province since 2013.
Lawyers for Mr Enembe have dismissed all allegations against him.
They denied Governor Enembe had pocketed public money, and said the allegations were politically motivated.
Enembe, 55, is suspected of misappropriating at least 560 billion rupiah (AUD$56 million) since 2017, and spending much of it in casinos in at least two countries, including Singapore and Australia.
But authorities have told the ABC the total amount under investigation was in the "trillions of rupiah," or hundreds of millions of dollars.
Anti-corruption authorities in Jakarta are investigating where the money came from, and whether Governor Enembe has siphoned the money from a 'special autonomy fund' allocated each year by the Indonesian government for development projects and operational funding in Papua.
Millions allegedly spent at Perth casino under investigation
Indonesia's Centre for Financial Transaction Reporting and Analysis (PPATK) last week revealed it was investigating several suspicious money trails over the past five years, involving Lukas Enembe's own personal bank accounts, or accounts he allegedly controls.
Authorities have confirmed to the ABC that they were investigating the source of money Lukas Enembe allegedly spent at the Perth Casino, amounting to about $500,000 a year since 2017. They claim the money was deposited in cash into bank accounts in Perth and Melbourne.
One source told the ABC that Mr Enembe was suspected of spending the funds on more than just betting in casinos.
"Not all the money he spent for the gambling, it includes assets," the ABC was told.
Indonesia's Anti-Corruption Commission (the KPK) is investigating all of Lukas Enembe's financial assets in Australia. It is not clear whether he has property in Australia under his name.
Anti-corruption body Transparency International said Australia's casinos were a destination for money laundering.
"The Australian government must take strong action to make sure casinos report suspicious transactions and don't act as safe havens for crooks, corrupt figures and money launderers," Clancy Moore, CEO of Transparency International Australia said.
Indonesia's investigative magazine Tempo — citing evidence sent to the Anti-Corruption Commission – has reported that transactions believed to be made to Mr Enembe's account in Australia amounted to 1.2 trillion rupiah, or about AUD$1.2 million.
"Oddly, the deposits to that account were generally made in cash. At those times Lukas was in Indonesia," the magazine reported this week.
The ABC understands transactions to or from an Australian bank account were detailed in a series of 12 reports the PPATK recently sent to the Anti-Corruption Commission, as part of its investigations into Lukas Enembe.
The PPATK is Indonesia's equivalent to Australia's financial investigator Austrac.
Investigators have told the ABC one of the 12 reports related to evidence of gambling and money trails in Australia.
Tempo Magazine also reported that one of Lukas Enembe's financial transactions in Australia was done by a high-ranking official of a bank in Papua.
"These funds are said to be connected with a broadcasting rights contract for the 2021 National Sports Week (PON) in Papua.
"That regional bank official is also connected with renting a private jet for Lukas for US$500,000. It is suspected this money came from the Papua Special Autonomy fund."
An anti-corruption whistle-blowing organisation known as MAKI (the Indonesian Anti-Corruption Society) this week told the ABC it had evidence that Governor Enembe was in Australia as recently as July this year.
The NGO supplied a copy of a flight manifest, showing that Governor Enembe was the only passenger on a private jet that flew to Brisbane from Dili in Timor Leste, on July 10. Separate data showed he made the return flight on July 14.
As Papua's Governor, Lukas Enembe has had control over and access to the special autonomy fund for almost a decade.
Since 2013 when Lukas Enembe was elected governor, the Indonesian government has allocated the equivalent of AUD$50 billion to this fund (500 trillion rupiah), according to Indonesia's Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Mahfud MD.
Indonesia's Anti-Corruption Commission has twice this month summoned Lukas Enembe for questioning, after formally naming him as a "suspect" over an alleged 1 billion rupiah bribe (AUD$100,000) from a Papuan businessman.
But the governor both times failed to show up, citing ill health.
For the past fortnight, Mr Enembe has been holed up in his home at Jayapura, the capital of Papua province.
Corruption allegations politically motivated: Lawyers
Enembe's lawyers said he has had a swollen leg and general poor health due to diabetes and a series of strokes. In recent years he has had heart and pancreatic surgery.
They denied Governor Enembe had pocketed public money, and dismissed the allegations against him as politically motivated, given his membership of Indonesia's Democrat Party.
Muhammad Rifai Darus, a spokesman for Lukas Enembe, said the governor's distribution of the special autonomy funds had been completely lawful and the alleged bribe from the businessman was money that already belonged to him.
"That is all legitimate, regulated by regional regulations," he told Tempo magazine.
"Pak Lukas has never taken anything from the APBN (state budget) funds."
His lawyers have also sought to explain the governor's wealth by claiming he personally owns a gold mine in Papua.
"He is a rich man. He has natural resources and gold. Why are there suspicions?" said one lawyer Aloysius Renwarin last week.
"For the last 20 years, he has been serving his homeland where the biggest gold deposit is located in his district, in his place of birth."
Governor's bank accounts frozen, travel ban imposed
The Anti-Corruption Commission said if Mr Enembe could prove his wealth and spending were legitimate, it would drop the case against him.
"KPK … can stop the investigation … if later in the investigation process Mr Lukas can prove where the tens, hundreds of billions of rupiah came from," said Alexander Marwata, the commission's deputy chairman.
In the meantime, authorities have frozen the governor's bank accounts in Indonesia, and imposed an indefinite ban on him leaving the country.
Supporters blockade Enembe's house
Thousands of Mr Enembe's supporters have remained outside his home at Jayapura since early last week, in protest at the allegations against him, and demanding the case be dropped.
They have effectively blockaded the house to prevent law enforcement authorities from raiding his home to arrest him.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo this week appealed to the Papuan governor to submit to questioning.
"Everybody has to comply with KPK's summons and comply with the law," the president said.
