Surakarta Palace Dismisses Mystery Man’s Wild Claims

Solo. The court of Pakubuwono XIII has disavowed any knowledge of a mysterious man who claims to be a member of the ruling family in possession of staggering wealth that he says he wants to pass on to the people of Indonesia.

Prince Edhi Wirabhumi, chief executive of the Surakarta Palace Legal Foundation, said on Thursday that KGPH Tjokro Koesoemo, who the man claimed to be, had “died a long time ago,” and they had no record of KH Chaerul Fathollah, another name the man claimed.

“[The claim] can be suspected as being fraudulent, and of having misappropriated the name of the Surakarta Palace, the king and our noble title,” Edhi told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday.

The man claiming to be Tjokro (or Chaerul) told a packed news conference at the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah theme park on Wednesday that he had assets totaling more than Rp 1,200,000 trillion ($129.6 trillion), handed down to him by Pakubuwono IX, the long-dead former ruler of Surakarta, with whom he was “close.”

Tjokro said the vast fortune — in the form of gold, bonds and cash deposited in the Union Bank of Switzerland, Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC and the World Bank — had been accumulated by a succession of rulers who governed over what was to become Indonesia and had been passed on to Pakubuwono IX before it came into Tjokro’s possession.

Edhi said Pakubuwono IX died in 1893, making it rather unlikely that Tjokro could have been as “close” as he claimed.

He added that concerned officials at Taman Mini had contacted the palace to confirm whether Tjokro was indeed a member of the royal family.

“I answered that in the extended family of the Surakarta Palace, no one has such a name or title. And so far, the owner of the name had never contacted us,” he said.

Edhi said the names of the palace and Pakubuwono were often misused by individuals but added that the palace would investigate the claims, including those pertaining to the fortune.

“Of course we will first examine the validity of the certificates and the rights claimed by them,” he said

Separately, GPH Sebenan Mooy, the adopted Moluccan son of Tjokro, said the treasure had nothing to do with the current ruling family.

“Because these treasures are not owned by them. They belong to the people of Indonesia,” Sebenan said, Chairman of Graha Manungggal Sentosa Foundation (Yayasan Graha Manunggal Sentosa).

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