The Infamous Leader of Indonesia's Debt Forgiveness Cult

With inequality growing exponentially over the past decades, people around the world have assumed massive debts. In Indonesia, a mysterious cult with the impressive name Swissindo World Trust International Orbit has attracted a global following for its promise to magically make one's debts go away.

The group is led by Soegihartonotonegoro, a charismatic leader who calls himself M1, and presents himself as a godlike figure who can erase the world’s debt due to a seemingly limitless ancient inheritance. To find out the truth behind this bizarre story, VICE Indonesia correspondent Arzia traveled to visit the Swissindo Headquarters in Cirebon, Indonesia, and interviewed M1, and his followers.

We also met with the manager of a local bank that had been targeted by Swissindo for its debt services, and a client of Swissindo's whose experience with the group was not exactly as anticipated.

[VICE]

The group is led by Soegihartonotonegoro, a charismatic leader who calls himself M1, and presents himself as a godlike figure who can erase the world’s debt due to a seemingly limitless ancient inheritance.

[FathomLordkara]

Has 1 QUINTILION USD requires 75 bucks payment for processing fee.... *SEEMS LEGIT*

[davidsandlin]

So basically I send him 400$ and he wipes all my debt away with his secret ancient fortune. Seems legit.

[jefft]

That "minister of love" woman is bat shit crazy. I feel bad for people that get caught up in scams like this. If it sounds too good to be true, it likely is.

[Yahgtulah]

Holy shit its work .




IRS never contacted me since i move to indonesia .

[MatthewBasse]

"$6, 000, 000 for every man woman and child" talk about some hyperinflation

[tbrowniscool]

This quote never is more relevant than this vid: “In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king”

[ChrisThornettofEarth]

"Later, we discovered that M1 was really Satoshi Nakamoto." Now that would be a good plot twist.

[Trajan]

So he 'removes' their financial debt, only for them to be in debt to him. Ironic

[SergioMenaGTS]

Nuclear? Why waste time creating nuclear weapons if they're not being used?.
That's one particular way of thinking

[j.fragoso]

"IRS didn't contact me again" That's not a good thing...

[darthpapa]

WTF!?
I've been living in Indonesia and I never knew this Shit. Oh my poor Country, May God Help Us..

[noelr]

I’ve lost my faith in humanity; liberal or conservative, it doesn’t matter, ignorance outweighs us all. We are at the age of information but misinformation still wins. How can those of us with a clear vision stay sane anymore?

[johnkapwn]

"The IRS was bullying me! I felt like a criminal!"

Yes. Because you are. You essentially stole thousands of Dollars by not paying back your debts.

[arivanuaranu]

OMG, I've actually heard about this cult from my ex's father many years ago. It's weird to watch them here on Vice, and in English.

[andrewhuang]

"First off, humans must be freed from debt", to a certain degree its agreeable but also very dangerous and abusable. People can go out and max out all their credit cards and never have it be paid

[KyleRyanFilm]

"We have enough money to pay off your debt and give everybody $6 million. Just pay us an administration fee of $75." Lol what?

[davidmetzler]

I wonder what kind of Kool-Aid flavors they have in Indonesia?

[TinnisKitchen]

that "Prime minister of love" was on drugs..!!

[DiffuseSachverhalte]

This reminded me of a story over here in Germany: some guy created "Kingdom Germany" few years ago and even held a ceremory to let himself crown as it's King. He owned some land and gathered followeres around him with promises of jobs, houses and indendency. Lots joined his cult, many of those had debts in Germany and claimed Germany as county doesn't exist, therefor they don't have to pay their debts LOL !
Long story short, he even created his own driver licencense, passports and money. But when he created his own bank and took money from people in exchange for his fantasy money, it didn't took long to take him to prison.
These cults are based on fantasy and false promises, never last long.
Fascinating how creative people can get to scam others