Dover Man Second To Plead Guilty In Scheme To Illegally Buy And Smuggle Guns For Indonesian Secret Service Members

            CONCORD, N.H. – United States Attorney Emily Gray Rice announced that Feky R. Sumual pleaded guilty in federal court to participating in a scheme to illegally buy guns and then smuggle them out of the country for the benefit of members of the protective security detail of the President and the Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia -- also known as the Indonesian Presidential Guard.  Sumual pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to make false statements in connection with the acquisition of firearms, to make false statements in records required to be kept by federal firearms dealers and to smuggle firearms from the U.S.  Sumual is 51 years old and lived in Dover, N.H., before his arrest in this case.

            According to statements made during his plea hearing, Sumual joined a conspiracy to buy guns for members of the Indonesian Presidential Guard with the understanding that the Presidential Guard members then would smuggle the guns out of the U.S.  Specifically, Sumual admitted that his nephew, Audi N. Sumilat – on active duty with the U.S. Army in El Paso, Texas – and three members of the Presidential Guard came up with the plan in October 2014, when they were stationed together in Fort Benning, Georgia.  Sumual further admitted that in September and October 2015, as part of the plan, he purchased guns from federal firearms dealers in N.H. and Sumilat purchased guns from federal firearms dealers in Texas all for members of the Indonesian Presidential Guard, who could not lawfully have bought the guns in the U.S. themselves.  The guns – approximately twenty-two of them – were almost all 9 millimeter hand guns.  Sumual admitted that, to facilitate the purchases, he and Sumilat certified to the gun dealers from which they bought the guns that they were the actual buyers of the guns even though the actual buyers were the Presidential Guard members.  

            Sumual further admitted that he delivered the guns to members and representativesof the Presidential Guard in connection with official state visits by the President and Vice-President of Indonesia with the U.N. General Assembly in New York, N.Y., at the end of September 2015, and with the White House at the end of October 2015.  The guns Sumual admitted delivering consisted of those that he had bought in New Hampshire and others that Sumilat had acquired in, and shipped to Sumual from Texas.  Sumual stated that several individuals working for the Indonesian government or, in some instances, driving vehicles with Indonesian diplomatic license plates, facilitated the deliveries.  Sumual acknowledged that he understood that, after he delivered the guns, the members of the Presidential Guard intended to smuggle the illegally purchased guns from the U.S.  Lawfully exporting the guns – which were included as defense articles on the U.S. Munitions List – required both an exporter’s license and a license covering the specific guns exported.  No such licenses had been issued.

            United States District Judge Landya McCafferty accepted Sumual’s guilty plea and scheduled his sentencing for November 17, 2016.  Sumual faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000.  Sumilat also has pleaded guilty and is expected to be sentenced on October 11, 2016.

            This matter was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in both Manchester, N.H. and El Paso, Texas, as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, in Manchester, N.H. and Jakarta, Indonesia.  The Bureau of Diplomatic Security of the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Embassy to Indonesia, the Dover (N.H.) Police Department and the Indonesian National Police all provided important support.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Bill Morse.

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