AGO detains former Petral boss<\/p>\n
Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Zainul Arifin, former vice president of PT Pertamina Energy
\nTrading Limited (Petral), a subsidiary of state oil and gas firm
\nPertamina, has been arrested on corruption charges.<\/p>\n
Attorney General's Office (AGO) spokesman Masyudi Ridwan said
\non Friday, the day after the arrest, that Zainul was being held
\nat the AGO's detention facility.<\/p>\n
He said the case began in 2003, when Zainul deposited some
\nUS$9 million of the company's funds in the Credit Suisse
\nSingapore Bank (CSSB), without the approval of the board of
\ncommissioners.<\/p>\n
He said that some $8 million was later transferred to a
\nseparate bank account at CSSB belonging to a man named Did
\nBudiman Garna, who allegedly misused the funds.<\/p>\n
Didi was questioned by investigators from the
\ninterdepartmental anticorruption team chaired by Hendarman
\nSupandji. Didi said he spent the $8 million on obtaining working
\ncontracts for Petral.<\/p>\n
"We're also informing the deputy attorney general (Basrief
\nArief) about this case since he is the chief of the team tasked
\nwith locating the missing dollars," Masyudi said.<\/p>\n
Didi was earlier detained at the West Java Prosecutor's Office
\nin Bandung on fraud charges in a different case.<\/p>\n
Masyudi said the prosecutors would also question other senior
\nofficials of Petral.<\/p>\n
"When we interrogated him, Zainul claimed the president
\ndirector (Ari H. Sumarno) knew what he was doing, but when we
\nconfirmed his statement with the president director, he (Ari)
\nsaid that he did not know about it," Masyudi added.<\/p>\n
Petral is also filing a civil suit against CSSB in Singapore.
\nThe company has hired Singaporean lawyers for the lawsuit, a
\ndecision that has irritated the AGO.<\/p>\n
"I can't understand why Petral hired Singaporean lawyers since
\nwe have law experts here too," Masyudi said.<\/p>\n
However, Masyudi acknowledged that the results of the criminal
\ninvestigation could influence the outcome at the civil court.<\/p>\n
The graft probe at Petral is one of many cases that are being
\ninvestigated by the anticorruption team. Apart from investigating
\nPetral, the team is also investigating state-owned airport
\nmanagement company PT Angkasa Pura and fertilizer company PT
\nPupuk Kaltim.<\/p>\n
The alleged corruption at PT Angkasa Pura caused state loss of
\naround Rp 1.92 billion (US$192,000), while graft at Pupuk Kaltim
\nreached more than Rp 200 billion.<\/p>",
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