Eka Tjipta Widjaja is the founder of the Sinar Mas Group

Sinar Mas Group

Sinar Mas Group is one of the largest conglomerates in Indonesia. It was formed in 1962. It has many subsidiaries including Asia Pulp & Paper and palm oil producer PT SMART....

, which was one of the largest conglomerates during the Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

n New Order

New Order

New Order are an English rock band formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris...

 period. His flagship bank, BII or Bank International Indonesia, bankrolled many of his other ventures that made him at one time the king of copra

Copra

Copra is the dried meat, or kernel, of the coconut. Coconut oil extracted from it has made copra an important agricultural commodity for many coconut-producing countries. It also yields coconut cake which is mainly used as feed for livestock.-Production:...

. The Sinar Mas Group also owns the Singaporean

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

-listed Asian Pulp and Paper, a company that has been convicted of being involved in illegal logging in Cambodia

Cambodia

Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...

, Yunnan Province, China, and the illegal felling of over 50000 acres (202.3 km²) of forest in Bukit Tigapuluh national park. Greenpeace now reports that Sinar Mas is felling massive amounts of virgin forest in Papua to make room for palm oil plantations. His bank, like many other local banks, went under during the 1997-98 economic crisis with $9.7 billion in red and was seized by the government.

Personal life

Eka Tjipta Widjaja (born Oei Ek Tjhong) is polygamous and is known to have many official wives and unofficial relationships with countless women. He is rumoured to have sired more than 40 children. He has since retired from the limelight and handed his business over to his children, in particular Indra, Teguh and Franky and grandson Eric Oei Kang, who headed up the Hong Kong-listed construction company Creator Holdings. Widjaja's second son, Singapore tycoon Oei Hong Leong, is one of Southeast Asia's richest men, ranked by Forbes Magazine as #37, with a net worth of US$355 million.

APP in China

The famous Indonesian consortium, Sinar Mas Group, was founded by Mr. Eka Tjipta Wijaya, the prominent Chinese entrepreneur from Asia. The group's four core businesses include pulp and paper, agriculture, food, real estate development and other core industries linked to the pulp and paper industry, led by the Asia Pulp & Paper

Asia Pulp & Paper

Asia Pulp & Paper, also known in the paper industry as APP is based in Singapore, is one of the largest pulp and paper companies in the world. It was founded by Eka Cipta Widjaja, who had significant ties to the Suharto ruling family in Indonesia. APP claims to obtain 80-90% of the fiber for...

 Co., Ltd. (APP). Through unwavering efforts in the last 30 years, APP is now one of the world's top ten corporations in paper making, with overall assets of over $10 billion, and an annual production and processing capacity of more than 10 million tons.

However, the environmental record of APP has led many western companies including Staples and Office Depot

Office Depot

Office Depot is a supplier of office products and provides many services. The company's selection of brand name office supplies includes business machines, computers, computer software and office furniture, while its business services encompass copying, printing, document reproduction, shipping,...

 to cut all ties with the company. These decisions followed numerous environmental infringements including illegal logging in Yunnan Province, China, , and Cambodia

Cambodia

Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...

, breaching terms of agreements with the World Wildlife Fund in 2003, and Rainforest Alliance

Rainforest Alliance

The Rainforest Alliance is a non-governmental organization with the published aims of working to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior. It is based in New York City, and has offices throughout the...

  and the Forest Stewardship Council

Forest Stewardship Council

The Forest Stewardship Council is an international not-for-profit, multi-stakeholder organization established in 1993 to promote responsible management of the world’s forests. Its main tools for achieving this are standard setting, independent certification and labeling of forest products...

 in 2007, and the construction of an illegal road through the last remaining habitat of the critically endangered Sumatran Tiger

Sumatran Tiger

The Sumatran tiger is a tiger subspecies that inhabits the Indonesian island of Sumatra and has been classified as critically endangered by IUCN in 2008 as the population is projected at 176 to 271 mature individuals, with no subpopulation having an effective population size larger than 50...

.

The Asia Times

Asia Times

Asia Times was a newspaper launched in Thailand by Thai tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul in 1995. The newspaper hired talent from around the world to produce a regional English-language newspaper....

reported on the environmental record of the company stating:

APP's business model is a tactically aggressive one: it turns huge profits by quickly stripping forests bare, exploiting age-old forests and indigenous peoples, and leaving town before the environmental consequences are felt. By the time communities and governments lodge complaints and lawsuits, APP has divested itself of local interests and assets.

More recently, an investigation into the activities of APP in the Kampar peninsula found evidence of the construction of an illegal road, on which tracks of the critically endangered Sumartran Tiger were found.

Since 1992, APP focused its investments in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta region, building large scale pulp and papermaking enterprises with world-class paper-making technology, including Gold East, Ningbo Zhonghua, Gold Huasheng, Gold Hong Ye and Hainan Jinhai, as well as the cultivation of fast-growing paper plantations.

At present, APP owns 17 pulp and paper companies in China and more than 20 forestry centers, as a sole corporation and holding company with assets of about RMB 56 billion, and an annual production capacity of over 5 million tons. In 2005, the 20,000 full-time employees contributed to sales in China exceeding RMB 16.8 billion. List :
Gold East Paper (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd.
Ningbo Zhonghua Paper Co., Ltd.
Ningbo Asia Pulp & Paper Co., Ltd.
Hainan Jinhai Pulp & Paper Industry Co., Ltd.
Gold Huasheng Paper (Suzhou Industrial Park) Co., Ltd.
Gold Hong Ye Paper (Suzhou Industrial Park) Co., Ltd.
Yalong Paper Products (Kun Shan) Co., Ltd.
Zhenjiang Dadong Pulp & Paper Co., Ltd.
Gold Hai Paper Products (Kun Shan) Co., Ltd.
Asia Paper (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.
Ningbo Asia Paper Tube & Carton Box Co., Ltd.
Ningbo Asia Paper Converting Co., Ltd.
Ningbo Asia Unpolluted Paper Products Co., Ltd.
Jin Feng Yuan Paper Industry (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.
Jinxin (Qingyuan) Paper Industry Pte., Ltd.
Jinyu (Qingyuan) Tissue Paper Co., Ltd.
Guangxi Jingui Pulp & Paper Co., Ltd.
Gold Daio (Suzhou Industrial Park) Hygiene Products Co., Ltd.