Mira Hayati: the dangdut star who sold mercury whitening cream to 20,000 resellers

Mira Hayati was a dangdut singer from Makassar, South Sulawesi, who became one of Indonesia's most visible skincare entrepreneurs. In 2020 she founded MH Whitening Skin, selling whitening creams through a reseller network she claimed reached 20,000 people across Indonesia, with markets she said included Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Malaysia and Hong Kong. She publicly claimed revenue of up to Rp 10 billion a month and styled herself the 'Golden Queen of Makassar'.

The products at the centre of the case were MH Cosmetic Lightening Skin and MH Night Cream, sold through distributors, stokis, agents and resellers. In November 2024, police from Polda Sulsel and BPOM raided the operation. Laboratory tests found mercury in the creams, and the Night Cream had no BPOM distribution authorization. The raids seized 67 products from the MH, FF and RG lines that contained hazardous materials.

Hayati was charged under Article 435 of Law No. 17/2023 on health, which carries a maximum of 12 years in prison and a Rp 5 billion fine for distributing cosmetics that fail safety and quality standards. On 7 July 2025, the Makassar district court sentenced her to 10 months and a Rp 1 billion fine. The prosecution appealed, and in August 2025 the Makassar high court raised the sentence to four years.

On 19 December 2025, the Supreme Court (Decision No. 12016 K/PID.SUS/2025) cut the sentence to two years plus the Rp 1 billion fine, making it final and binding. On 18 February 2026 she was picked up from her home in Tamalanrea and detained at Lapas Kelas 1A Makassar. Her defence had argued the mercury creams were counterfeit copies of her products; the courts rejected that, and her business partners were convicted alongside her.

She scaled on celebrity trust, not compliance, so mercury and missing BPOM authorization multiplied harm across 20,000 resellers, ending in 2 years prison and Rp 1B fine.

The product itself was the crime: mercury is banned in cosmetics in Indonesia, and the lab found it in both creams she sold

The Night Cream had no BPOM authorization at all, so the business scaled on trust and marketing rather than compliance

A celebrity face converts a fan base into sales faster than a quality system can be built — 20,000 resellers multiplied both the harm and the evidence

The sentence swung from 10 months to 4 years to 2 years across three courts, and each stage kept the case in the headlines, extending the damage to her brand

An influencer's audience is not a compliance department. Mercury in a cream is not a product flaw — it is the business model — and 20,000 resellers multiplied the harm and the evidence.

The Supreme Court's two-year sentence became final in December 2025 and was executed on 18 February 2026, when Hayati was detained at Lapas Kelas 1A Makassar. The Rp 1 billion fine stood, with two months' subsidiary imprisonment if unpaid. The case became a reference point for BPOM enforcement against mercury cosmetics sold through influencer-led reseller networks, a category the agency had been warning about for years.