To many, Nat Rothschild's partners in his mining venture will forever be linked with Indonesia's mud volcano disaster of 2006

The scandal engulfing Nat Rothschild's Indonesian mining venture, Bumi, has raised questions about the involvement of his local partners, the politically influential Bakrie family, whose leading light is expected to run for the country's presidency in two years' time.

Behind the Bakrie Group is a family dynasty that currently has three key players, the brothers Aburizal, Nirwan and Indra. The group has fingers in lots of different pies, from media outlets and life insurance to mining, agriculture, construction, trade, and property development.

The brothers' late father, Ahmad Bakrie, founded the Bakrie & Brothers holding company in 1942 as a modest trading enterprise, but it was to become a giant conglomerate that suffered a devastating reversal of fortune with the Asian financial crisis in 1997. At that time, according to the FT, the Bakrie Group had incurred debts worth $1.1b (£0.7bn)), with its creditors losing 80% of their money and the family retaining less than 3% of its starting shares.

The Bakries are often acknowledged with a shrug of wariness in Indonesia, not least because the family – whose members fly around the archipelago in private jets – is linked by many to the world's largest mud volcano disaster in 2006. A gas exploration that went wrong in eastern Java resulted in the burial under sludge of thousands of people's homes and businesses, and six years on the muck has only now slowed to one-tenth of its previous flow.

Indonesia's national commission on human rights last month declared the disaster a human rights violation, and found that the Bakries' drilling firm had paid insufficient compensation to those affected.

This could have an impact on the political ambitions of the eldest brother, Aburizal. The 65-year-old native Indonesian – or pribumi, as they are called – is running for the 2014 presidential candidacy under the banner of the Golkar party, which once backed the dictator Suharto. While a tagline is sometimes associated with Aburizal – "Whatever Bakrie wants, he usually gets" – observers are now expressing doubts about just how successful he can be, amid the seeming shambles of the family's affairs.

The Bakrie Group has a philanthropic arm, which includes Bakrie University and Bakrie for the Nation, the latter of which is foundation that gives activists, intellectuals and artists 250m rupiah (£16,000) for its Bakrie achievement awards. But many of those awards' recipients have rejected or returned their prizes, citing mismanagement of the mud volcano disaster.

Seemingly able to brush off disaster after disaster, the family believes it is misunderstood by the public and the press. The youngest brother, Indra, recently told the FT: "People have been saying the Bakries are very complicated.

"In fact, the Bakries are not complicated. The Bakries are highly entrepreneurial, which is complicated for people who are not an entrepreneur to understand."