TVI Express license revoked in Indonesia
TVI Express’ long fought battles with the authorities in Indonesia seems to have come to a head yesterday with the revoking of their ‘business license’.
Effective immediately, TVI Express’ business activities in Indonesia have been frozen.
Citing an ongoing dispute over their license suspension, previously TVI Express had claimed that they were ‘a foreign company with previous approval by BKPM‘ (Indonesia’s ‘Investment Co-ordinating Board’).
Not having a bar of it, Suara Karya Online report that BKPM sent TVI Express a letter stating that TVI Express’ business activities ‘not correspond with the business license issued by the BKPM‘ (which was for a travel agent business).
This letter was sent in June and TVI were given till the end of July to respond. As far as I can tell, they never did and as such BKPM have now revoked their license and reported ‘TVI Express to the Criminal Investigation Police Headquarters on Wednesday‘ (21/09/2011).
Specifically, Goenarni Goenawan (Director of TVI Express Indonesia and 41 percent stake holder in TVI Express), Ni Komang Suratiningsih (10 percent stakeholder in TVI Express) and Tharun Trikha (49 percent stakeholder in TVI Express) have been accussed of ‘committing illegal actions (that) hurt consumers in Indonesia‘ after some Indonesians invested USD 2.6 million (that can’t be right? Ouch!) into TVI.
Will Trikha, Suratiningsih and Goenawan face the charges laid out against them?
Not likely as TVI Express has already moved onto the Phillipines, where they hope to continue to the scam before having to move on somewhere else.
No doubt the trio will never set foot in Indonesia again.
Meanwhile, hopefully someone in the Phillipines is taking notice of all this (local media, government regulators and the general public, I’m looking at you!), as at this point, TVI Express and criminal activity really isn’t all that surprising.
Hopefully the Phillipines might be able to nip TVI in the bud before the scam does too much damage.
Good luck guys!
Technically speaking, PT TVI EXPRESS INDONESIA’s business license (SIUP) was revoked on 3-AUG-2011. Their business license is actually for “computer, electronics, and consultancy”. it has NOTHING to do with travel.
BKPM’s decision resulted from complaint by APLI, the Indonesia chapter of DSA, that PT TVI EXPRESS is operating as MLM without SIUP-L, the MLM Business License.
This announcement was BKPM examining their “foreign investment company license”, and revoking that as well. Translation is not exact, but they accepted foreign capital (i.e. Tarun Trikha investing from India).
Original news about PT TVI EXPRESS INDONESIA’s SIUP revokation
http://www.tempointeraktif.com/hg/bisnis/2011/08/03/brk,20110803-349833,id.html
The revokation news was printed on another Indonesia site.
Here’s a bit more detail about the revokation, and a revelation: The investigative task force that was convened to go after Internet cycler crime recommends criminal prosecution and BKPM will make its own recommendation soon.
Goenarni Goenawan cannot be reached for comment. Apparently her phone was turned off or something.
http://www.tempointeraktif.com/hg/bisnis/2011/09/27/brk,20110927-358600,id.html
No doubt she’s probably on a beach somewhere sipping Pina Coladas with Manoj Kumar and Harendar Kaur.
cheers!i hope they’re having a BLAST!
TVI Express vows to fight on despite revocation of TVI Express business license in Indonesia, had press conference declaring so.
http://www.reportasenews.com/life-style/10/2011/klarifikasi-pimpinan-tvi-express-di-indonesia.html (use Google Translate)
TVI Express Indonesia claims they are just misunderstood, it’s some individuals that tarnished the company.
http://www.satunews.com/read/14709/2011/10/06/pt-tvi-express-korban-oknum-tidak-bertanggung-jawab-html (use Google Translate)
Indonesia police in 3 jurisdictions are investigating TVI Express fraud
http://bataviase.co.id/node/825595
TVI Express misunderstood with some distributors gone rogue…?
TVI Express to fight the local authorities decision…?
Hmm… now where have I heard that before?
Some indonesian police revealed to be involved in TVI Express themselves (much like South Africa)
http://www.waspadamedan.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14584:pemeriksaan-kasus-tvi-express-lamban&catid=51:medan&Itemid=206
Apparently TVI Express still breaths in Indonesia. Goenawan claims to have refiled application for SIUP-L license
http://bataviase.co.id/node/838314
Doubt BKPM would actually approve it, but again, TVI Express appear to be doing the same delaying tactics as SpeakAsia: trying to make the slow bureaucracy to work in its favor by running it out as long as possible.
Just for grins… Tarun Trikha, the reputed mastermind behind TVI Express, now has a website: taruntrikha.com
The “about” section is hilarious. Claims to be “marketing executive” at the age of 14… selling bottled water.
Not a single word about TVI Express, though plenty of pictures.
AND it’s on domain privacy, though this is his usual domain registrar: Namecheap. V2Global, TVI Express, and his other websites are all through the same registrar.
Looks like a bunch of generic articles sourced from Fivver or something.
PR excercise amidst the pending launch of this airline?
Yep, confirmed that he plagiarized at least one article:
This one:
http://www.taruntrikha.com/archives/141
Is identical to this one:
http://www.copyscape.com/viewfound.php?o=79909&t=1321733824&z=44162#copyscape_start
(Copyscape found it, so credits to them)