Today, from Los Angeles where we took refuge after being driven out of Bali by a death threat in 2007, my children and I requested protection from the Indonesian National Police Commission in Jakarta against a Bali "Law Mafia".

For over twenty years Bali was my home, but the real Island of the Gods has a side in dark contrast to the idyllic island of harmony portrayed in Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love. In the real Bali, foreigners are often targets for organized fraud.

This is an amazing true tale of Bali involving false documents, deceptive religious ceremonies, collusive legal proceedings and suspected corruption throughout the legal system stretching back over two decades.

Although the plan started simply enought as a means to strip us of our home and businesses, the complications eventually grew out of hand. The children’s mother and my wife, Ni Made Jati, was involved, and no matter how enthusiastically she began, by 2008 her own lawyer in Bali had to advise her to abandon our children. She obeyed his advice and she has not seen or communicated with our children in the two years since.

The Bali police since 2005 have either shut down without reason or left uninvestigated six cases covering three different suspected frauds, despite decisions by the Supreme Court in Jakarta clearly stating that the documents behind our case are false and acquired contrary to law.

In Indonesia, informal organizations of police, judges, prosecutors and lawyers who manipulate the justice system to subvert the law are called "Law Mafias." This case has all the signs of a Bali Law Mafia, and under control of this organization and of her family, and undoubtedly convinced that she needs their protection to halt criminal investigations, Made Jati was forced to choose between her children and control of family assets which are now slowly being drained away into other hands.

It is an astonishing story, and a sad one, especially for our children. It is also a disappointment for millions of tourists around the world who have fallen in love with the image of Bali as the "Last Paradise". More than a few have turned their anger against me for ruining their illusion, and I can understand that. Bali is beautiful, and there are many good people, but ultimately no more and no less than any other place on earth. It is an unwelcome truth, but there is no last paradise.

25 July 2010