Bapepam considers criminal charges in Bank Lippo case<\/p>\n
Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) is considering
\nfiling criminal charges against alleged wrongdoers in the Bank
\nLippo scam.<\/p>\n
\"Bapepam has agreed that in addition to administrative
\nsanctions, there will be criminal charges as well,\" Teten Masduki
\nof Indonesian Corruption Watch told reporters on Tuesday
\nfollowing a closed door meeting with Bapepam chairman
\nHerwidayatmo.<\/p>\n
Teten is a member of the Public Coalition on the Bank Lippo
\nScam, an informal grouping that has been leading a campaign to
\nensure that those involved in the Bank Lippo affair are punished
\nappropriately.<\/p>\n
The grouping met Bapepam to get an update on the agency's
\ninvestigations to date.<\/p>\n
Teten said that the capital market watchdog would announce its
\nofficial stance on whether to press charges after it had
\nconcluded its investigation into the case on March 17.<\/p>\n
Previous Bapepam statements in the mass media, however,
\nindicated that the agency would only impose administrative
\nsanctions against the management of Bank Lippo.<\/p>\n
A statement by Herwidayatmo that the Bank Lippo case had yet
\nto cause financial losses to the state was seen by analysts as an
\nindication that Bapepam would eventually let the bank's top
\nexecutives and commissioners get off scot-free.<\/p>\n
The Bank Lippo saga started when the bank published two
\ndifferent third quarter financial reports late last year. While
\nin the first report in November the bank claimed to have made a
\nprofit, the second report in December showed that the bank was in
\nthe red and its capital adequacy ratio (CAR) had plunged to the
\nalarming level of 4 percent.<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Stock Exchange has faulted the publicly-listed
\nbank's management for the dual financial reports, particularly as
\nthe bank had initially claimed that the first report was audited,
\nwhich turned out not to be true, with the result that the
\ninvesting public had been mislead.<\/p>\n
The bank has claimed that the financial loss and capital
\ndeterioration were caused by a plunge in the value of foreclosed
\nassets (mostly property assets). This argument was challenged by
\nanalysts as the prices of houses and other property assets were
\non the rise at the time.<\/p>\n
Since late last year, the price of the bank's shares have
\ntumbled. There has been allegations that certain parties linked
\nto the former owners of Bank Lippo had been deliberately
\nmanipulating transactions to lower the bank's share price, with
\nthe main intention being to allow the former owners to repurchase
\nthe bank's shares from the government at a very low price.<\/p>\n
This would cause great losses to the government, which
\ninjected bailout funds into the bank in 1999. The government now
\nowns a 59 percent stake in Bank Lippo.<\/p>\n
Alexander Lay, a member of the Public Coalition on the Bank
\nLippo Scam, said that according to article 107 of Law No. 8\/1995,
\na deliberate attempt to mislead the investing public and other
\nparties, including Bapepam, could be punished with a maximum of
\nthree years imprisonment and a fine of up to Rp 5 billion (US$563
\nthousand)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/bapepam-considers-criminal-charges-in-bank-lippo-case-1447893297",
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