The Indonesian paper producer Sinarmas has a deeper influence over logging and deforestation than it lets on, according to an investigation by the Associated Press news agency.

Known internationally as Asia Pulp & Paper, the company claims its 27 suppliers are independent.  But an analysis of nearly 1,100 pages of corporate records revealed a web of shell companies owned and operated by ten key Sinarmas figures directly control those plantations.  The purpose of this deception is reportedly an attempt to "greenwash" the company's image in the global market as deforestation occurs in Indonesia at a faster rate than any other country on earth.

Sinarmas vowed to stop deforestation in 2013.  But the AP reports, "a company owned by two employees of Sinarmas Forestry has been cutting down tropical forest on the island of Borneo since 2014.  Official forestry and industry production reports seen by AP show some of that wood has been sold on the local market and some has been sold to a company that is turning it into pellets marketed as a sustainable energy source."  Other plantation companies have been accused of responsibility for the devastating fires in Indonesia in 2015 which a Harvard and Columbia study said hastened 100,000 deaths and that the World Bank estimated caused losses of US$16 Billion.

Greenpeace is "alarmed" at the AP's findings.  The head of Greenpeace's Indonesian forests campaign Kiki Taufik called for "an immediate investigation, involving NGOs and independent experts" into the Sinarmas' relationships with its suppliers.