Sukarno's widow 'faces tax charges'

Dewi: Showgirl turned politician's wife turned TV celebrity

Japanese tax officials have ordered Indonesia's former first lady to pay taxes on 130 million yen (US$1.1m) in income she allegedly failed to report, according to reports.

Tax investigators discovered that Ratna Sari Dewi Sukarno, the Japanese widow of Indonesia's founding President Sukarno, failed to declare income she earned from 1999 to 2001, various Japanese newspapers said.

The reports said she owed 50 million yen in taxes.

The Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau refused to confirm the reports, citing privacy reasons.

The Nihon Keizai said the tax bureau concluded that Ms Dewi deliberately hid her earnings from speeches, parties and other events, while reporting her private travel and living expenses as tax-deductible office-related expenses.

Her Tokyo-based office was also suspected of having evaded taxable sales income, Kyodo News agency reported.

'No comment'

A representative for her office, Yasuo Asakura, declined to comment on the charges.

He said Ms Dewi, currently in Europe, was not available for comment.

Ms Dewi is a former Japanese showgirl who became the Indonesian leader's fourth wife and accompanied him in the days before his death in 1970.

Now in her 60s, she is a television celebrity in Japan - where she is known as Madame Dewi - and regularly appears on talk shows.