The Start

I, Michael Donnelly, am a U.S.citizen who has lived more than twenty years in Indonesia. My ex-wife Ni Made Jati is an Indonesian citizen. We were legally married in California in 1985, moved to Bali in 1987 and led, at least at first, a normal and happy family life. Our two sons, Sean and Brenden, were born in 1993 and 1994 in California and Singapore, and they are also U.S. citizens in accord with the laws of both the U.S. and Indonesia. We built two successful businesses, Uluwatu Boutiques and Kori Restaurant, and bought several properties.

After the children were born, Made Jati began to change, began an affair with an Austrian man, became abusive with the children and short-tempered with me. She pressed for a divorce, but refused to discuss how we would care for our children or settle our family and business affairs.

In 2005, Made surprised me with an Accusation of Divorce claiming a fictitious Balinese marriage backed by a new Marriage Certificate which she had obtained in 1996 in Denpasar without my knowledge, and based upon a false double identity as a single woman she had established in Tabanan, while she also had an identity as a wife and mother with me and our children in Denpasar.

At the National Court I entered proof that we had been legally married in California in 1985 and that her 1996 Marriage Certificate was false, but I lost. There were apparent signs of collusion in the court decision, the testimony of my witnesses was falsified and reversed in the court record, my wife’s witnesses apparently committed perjury - claiming that a Balinese ceremony which took place in May 1994 at our home in Sanur had actually occurred in September 1996 in Kuta - and it appears that I was betrayed by my own attorneys at Austrindo Law Office.

Her purpose, it seems, was to use the legal consequences of a 1996 marriage to seize custody of our children, cancel their U.S. citizenship by claiming they were bastards born outside the marriage, and to seize all our family businesses and assets. She and her family then took our businesses, and I was threatened with arrest if I interfered.

Bali Police Refuse Investigation

I reported suspected fraud and false documents to the police in Bali. Two other suspected frauds came to light during the next year, one in a land purchase and another against our business partner at Kori Restaurant, which I also reported along with a final report against Austrindo Law Office for suspected fraud.

Despite Made Jati eventually admitting that her claims of a marriage in 1996 were false, the police stopped or dropped all the cases, six in total, without investigation or contrary to law. I continued to push for investigation, but in 2007 I received a death threat against me and my children.

Made Jati refused to discuss or meet with me about the threat. On the advice of the U.S. Embassy I fled with my children to California for their safety. But with the assistance of my new lawyer, Maharidzal S.H., I continued my legal battles in Indonesia.

Supreme Court of Indonesia Rejects Made Jati's Documents

In 2008 two decisions from the Supreme Court of Indonesia confirmed that the 1985 California marriage was legal in Indonesia and was ended by divorce, and that Made Jati's acquisition of a new Marriage Certificate in Indonesia in 1996 was unlawful. I hoped that despite the other suspected frauds we could drop the criminal reports and reach a settlement on our family issues. Made Jati continued to refuse communication or mediation, however.

Made Jati Flees California Court Orders

Without any prior attempt at communication, in 2008 Made Jati appeared unexpectedly in California and filed a petition for custody. But when the judge ordered her to give testimony under oath, she immediately fled California before trial on the advice of her attorney Ida Bagus Wikantara in Bali. The California Court ruled that she abandoned her children and issued an arrest warrant on 50 criminal counts of Contempt. She has refused all communication or support for our children since.

The Mafia of the Gods

Yet interpreting this as a mother willing to betray her family in a grab for assets is not the complete story. Because sorting through the extraordinary webs of events and documents, it is apparent that Made Jati is only an instrument to an ends, and that these suspected frauds were planned, backed and controlled by members of the Bali legal community, a "Mafia of the Gods."

In 2011, Sean, Brenden and I traveled to Jakarta under the sponsorship of the National Commission for Child Protection (KNPA), which summoned Made Jati to Jakarta to meet her children. Made Jati refused six summons to appear, apparenly afraid to leave the protection provided by the Bali police.

In Indonesia an appeal for settlement of family assets in currently in front of the Supreme Court. Previous decisions at the National Court and High Court in Denpasar, Bali, and the Supreme Court in Jakarta, show clear indications of collusion.

In the meantime, reports to the Internal Affairs Bureau (Wasidik) of the Criminal Investigation Division (Bareskrim) of the National Police in Jakarta, to the Task Force for Eradication of the Law Mafia (Satgas Pemberantasan Mafia Hukum, and the to the National Police Commission (Kompolnas) have led to an re-examination of the cases previously shut down by the Bali police.

-- 2012