Rukmini Sukarno Kline (26 August 1942 – 1 May 2009), also known as Rukmini Sukmawati, was an Indonesian-born Italian opera singer and daughter of

Indonesian president The president of the Republic of Indonesia () is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Indonesia. The president is the leader of the executive branch of the Indonesian government and the commander-in-chief of the In ...

Sukarno Sukarno (6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader of the Indonesian struggle for independenc ...

Life and career

Rukmini was born on 26 August 1942 in

Pangkalpinang Pangkalpinang, colloquially written as Pangkal Pinang, also known as Pin-kong in Hakka, is the capital and largest city of the Bangka Belitung Islands Province in Indonesia. It is located on Bangka Island's east coast, the city is divided into ...

Bangka Belitung The Bangka Belitung Islands (; Jawi: ) is a province of Indonesia. Situated off the southeastern coast of Sumatra, the province comprises two main land masses — the islands of Bangka and Belitung — and numerous smaller islands. Bangka B ...

, to Nina and

. She was of mixed Javanese and German descent. Her mother gave her to an ethnic Chinese family and she was later given the name Nyuk Lan. Rukmini was sent to Rome at age 8. An opera singer, she lived in Rome in the 1960s. In 1967, she met and married the American film actor Franklin Latimore Kline. They had a son, Chris, a journalist. Her husband once arranged a concert for her at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

, and dubbed it Fiesta Mundo. Rukmini, who claimed to speak eight languages fluently, sang songs from the various countries around the globe. By the late 1970s, she was the sole owner of Frankenburg Import-Export Ltd., a Kansas corporation registered in Mexico as a middleman-supplier of steel products to that country. In December 1978,

Petroleos Mexicanos Pemex (a portmanteau of Petróleos Mexicanos, which translates to ''Mexican Petroleum'' in English; ) is the Mexican state-owned petroleum corporation managed and operated by the Mexican government. It was formed in 1938 by nationalization and ...

, "Pemex", Mexico's national oil company, accepted her bid to supply some 93,000 meters of steel oil field pipe, and in March 1979 forwarded Frankenburg-Kansas a purchase order requesting various types and quantities of pipe for which Pemex was willing to pay approximately $5.2 million. In March 1986, she was convicted by a state court in Houston, Texas, of failing her fiduciary duties in brokering a deal between

Pemex Pemex (a portmanteau of Petróleos Mexicanos, which translates to ''Mexican Petroleum'' in English; ) is the Mexico, Mexican State ownership, state-owned Petroleum industry, petroleum corporation managed and operated by the government of Mexico, ...

, Mexico's national oil company, and the Nissho-Iwai American Corporation. She was sentenced to 14 years in prison and fined $10,000 for misappropriating $5.5 million. She was not in court to hear the outcome of the trial. A few days later, she surrendered to the authorities, turning herself in before a state district judge in Houston, Texas and saying she fled after the conviction because she panicked and became ill. She is listed as a contributor to the presidential campaign of

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...

in 1987. In July 1988, her appeal against the result of her suit against the Nissho-Iwai American Corporation was denied by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sukarno, Rukmini 1942 births American people of Indonesian descent Family of Sukarno 2009 deaths Children of presidents of Indonesia Children of prime ministers