Marcel Staal and his partner Jenty Lim, an Indonesian businesswoman, have fled justice in Indonesia. The subject of multiple newspaper reports in the Indonesia media, including the major national newspaper Kompas, Staal is now wanted for questioning about a series of fraudulent language schools which he and suddenly closed in August 2015 in Indonesia. Below is a picture of the grey-haired Dutchman, who is alleged to have absconded with billions of rupiah worth of student payments with Ms Lim.

Marcel Staal at the launch of Dunia Bahasa

According to Indonesian media reports, the couple have hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of student payments for courses which never occurred. It is also emerged that Dunia Bahasa was not even registered as a business with the Ministry of Education of the Department of Immigration. They merely had papers at the local district level. It is simply impossible that Dunia Bahasa could have opened 7 branches across Java without a degree of collusion with corrupt government officials, of course.

The Dunia Bahasa chain specifically marketed itself to children and even infant learners, as well as adults. Therefore, we can assume that Staal and Lim had no ethical problem with defrauding young families who were saving for the education of their children. It is people like this who ruin the reputation of expats in Indonesia. Staal is rumored to have fled the country, but it is hoped that authorities in his native Netherlands take a look into him and ask some questions about his ill-gotten gains.