By Zach Hope and Amilia Rosa
Singapore/Bali: Indonesian police have backflipped on a decision not to seek interviews with Ricky Olarenshaw and three other Australian men about their links to a Bali massage spa that was allegedly offering sexual services illegally.
Lawyers acting for Olarenshaw’s estranged Balinese wife have accused him of being the “mastermind” behind the operations of Flame Spa Bali, which was shut down in September following a police raid.
Essendon premiership player Ricky Olarenshaw and his wife, Sarnanitha, in 2023.Credit: Facebook
Ni Ketut Sri Astari Sarnanitha, or Nitha, who shares a child with the Essendon premiership player, remains in detention, having lost a court challenge on Tuesday into the validity of her arrest.
Her lawyers argued that while it was her name on the business documents, Olarenshaw and his Australian business partners were the true owners.
Nitha claimed she was used as the frontwoman to skirt Indonesia’s foreign investment laws requiring non-citizen business owners to put up close to $1 million in capital.
But despite these claims and publicly circulating photos purporting to show two of the Australians collecting wads of cash as dividend payments, Bali police chose not to question them, instead stopping the investigation at Nitha and another Indonesian woman because it was their names on the official documents.
Bali police have always maintained that the investigation remained ongoing.
More than two months since the raid, a senior police source has confirmed to this masthead that investigators are now seeking to interview Olarenshaw and his three friends.
This masthead also understands that police from Jakarta travelled to Bali for three days recently to conduct an internal review of the local officers’ investigation.
Nitha’s lawyers have questioned why the Australians were not formally interviewed. They have also alleged the police raid may have been instigated by the business partners, who sought to recoup their investments from Nitha after her relationship with Olarenshaw broke down in August.
The police review’s findings are unknown, and it is also unclear how the Bali police intend to interview the Australians. Olarenshaw, who has not responded to requests for comment, returned to Australia before the raid. It was believed another member of the quartet had also left Bali, but Nitha’s lawyers thought two of them were still in the province.
The court hearing on Tuesday was not about proving Nitha’s guilt in relation to the charges of “pimping” and pornography at Flame Spa – this will be the focus of a later trial. Rather, the hearing was about whether police had enough evidence to arrest her. The judge ruled that they did.
This masthead does not suggest anyone associated with the operations of the business knew of the sexual activity being alleged by police.
The business openly advertised “full body-to-body sensual massage with three exotic therapists” but also that it “strictly prohibit[s] sexual intercourse”.
“I knew all the therapists at the Flame Spa – they were my colleagues and my friends. None of them are prostitutes,” Tangkas Sudana Yoga, a waiter for the business, told this masthead outside court last week.
“The spa has very strict rules about it.”
Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.