He had been playing with his younger sister Mamiek in the family's house on Jalan Haji Agus Salim in Central Jakarta when he ran into his mother, who was carrying into the dining room a pot of boiling hot oxtail soup, which washed over Tommy.
The timing of this injury is significant in the context of Indonesian history because on the night of 30 September 1965, an abortive coup attempt was launched by elements of the military, shooting dead six generals at about 4 am on 1 October.
[16] Tommy and Bambang were alleged by a former business associate to have imposed "unofficial markups on oil exports and imports, reaping up to $200 million a year in the 1980s.
[20] In 1989, Tommy formed a consortium, Marga Mandala Sakti (MMS), which lost a bid to his sister Tutut’s company to build Jakarta’s north harbor toll road, the North-South Link.
[28] In the early 1990s, Tommy acquired shares in one of three petrochemical plants proposed by Golden Key, a Jakarta-based company headed by businessman Eddy Tansil.
[31] In 1994, Tommy's Bermuda-registered company Megatech, which is co-owned by Malaysian firm Mycom Setdco, purchased Italian sports car maker Lamborghini from Chrysler Corp. for $40 million.
In July 1997, state and private banks were encouraged by the government to provide a $650 million loan to Tommy to build a national car factory.
On 23 September 1997, in response to the Asian Financial Crisis, Finance Minister Mar’ie Muhammad halted fifteen "mega" projects, but the Timor national car was absent from the list,[34] prompting claims[who?]
Tommy's Humpuss Group allegedly sponsored a company named PT Vista Bella to buy back TPN's debts on 30 April 2003 for Rp 512 billion, although under the sale agreement, the purchaser cannot be affiliated with the original owner.
On 28 August 2008, Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati stated that Bank Mandiri had been directed to transfer Rp1.23 trillion (US$134 million) of funds owned by TPN to a government account.
In September 2000, a panel of three Supreme Court judges, led by Syafiuddin Kartasasmita, overturned the ruling and sentenced Tommy and Gelael each to 18 months in jail for corruption.
[59] The Supreme Court overturned Tommy's corruption conviction in October 2001, in a move that was viewed as part of a deal to make him come out of hiding.
[62] He served the first three weeks of his sentence in the Block H luxury wing of Cipinang jail, Jatinegara, East Jakarta, before being transferred to Nusa Kambangan Island prison off the southern coast of Central Java.
His luxury 8 x 3 meter cell was carpeted and contained a sofa, a sideboard, a television, a refrigerator, cooking utensils, an air-conditioner, a water purifier, a laptop computer, and two mobile phones.
[4] From late 1999 to September 2000, Jakarta was hit by a series of bombings, which were linked by some officials to efforts to prosecute members of the Suharto family, including Tommy, for corruption.
[69] On 14 September 2000, a day before Suharto's corruption trial was to resume, a bomb exploded in the basement carpark of the Jakarta Stock Exchange, killing 15 people.
President Abdurrahman Wahid said the bombing was linked to his efforts to prosecute members of the Suharto family and that Tommy and his friend Habib Ali Baagil of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) might be involved.
[74] Joko Bodo pretended to go along with the plot but instead called police and Elize was arrested in a sting on 19 January near the Soldiers Museum at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (a theme park founded by Tommy’s mother) in East Jakarta in possession of the bombs.
[74] Elize’s confession that Tommy gave her the bombs was later withdrawn by her lawyer, Masiga Bugis, who claimed her client was suffering mental problems.
Elize was detained at Pondok Bambu women’s jail and went on trial at East Jakarta District Court in April 2001 for possession of explosives.
[77] On 6 August 2001, police seized guns, grenades, explosives and ammunition at two Jakarta residences rented by Tommy: a unit in Cemara Apartment and a house in Pondok Indah.
[81] In 2012, former Rolls-Royce employee Dick Taylor alleged the company gave a $20 million bribe and a blue Rolls–Royce car to Tommy in the early 1990s for his help in persuading Garuda Indonesia to buy Rolls’ Trent 700 engine for Airbus A330 aircraft.
Rolls-Royce was required to pay a total of £671 million for its criminal conduct in deals that covered Indonesia, Thailand, India, Russia, Nigeria, China and Malaysia.
[96] In October 2017, his lawyer denied Tommy was planning to run for office in 2019, saying fake accounts on social media were falsely claiming he had been endorsed by mass organizations.
[99] In July 2018, Berkarya Party announced Tommy would be standing in the April 2019 general election as a candidate for the national legislature, representing Papua province.
[101] In the opinion of Ed Davies and Agustinus Beo Costa, writing for Reuters, he sought to appeal to nostalgia about the unity and security of his father's government.
[105] In September 2020, Tommy's lawyer Azim Marekhan, filed a complaint to Jakarta Police regarding fake social media accounts in his client's name.
Jakarta’s rumor mill speculated that Tommy and his brother Bambang had been arguing over the national car policy, and one of them fired a shot that hit their mother.
The persistent rumor was denied by former National Police chief Sutanto (a presidential aide in 1996) in the 2011 book Pak Harto The Untold Stories.
[119] At the age of 34, Tommy married 22-year-old Ardhia Pramesti Regita Cahyani, better known as 'Tata', on 30 April 1997 at At-Tin Mosque at Taman Mini recreation park.