Sweet Secrets

When Indonesia's Minister of Agriculture discovers, in the run up to the Presidential elections, that the country's usual sugar stockpile is in short supply, the government's principal concern shifts to the replenishment of this staple commodity in a desperate attempt to avoid social unrest at a time when it is least desired.

Such a mammoth purchase of sugar, however, offers scope for fraudulent activity and the Chinese trading company employed to oversee the transaction uses the purchase as...