Bapepam says it needs more time to complete Lippo probe<\/p>\n
Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The financial authorities will be unable to complete their
\ninvestigation into the Bank Lippo affair by the Monday deadline
\nthey have set themselves, a senior official has admitted.<\/p>\n
Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) chairman
\nHerwidayatmo said on Friday that what would be unveiled to the
\npublic on Monday was the progress achieved so far in the
\ninvestigations being carried out separately by the agency, Bank
\nIndonesia and the Ministry of Finance.<\/p>\n
"The announcement on March 17 will feature clarifications from
\nthe relevant institutions, such as Bank Indonesia, Bapepam and
\nthe Ministry of Finance, as to what stage they had reached in
\ntheir probes into the Lippo case," he explained.<\/p>\n
Previously, Bapepam said that it would announce the results of
\nits investigation on March 17.<\/p>\n
The agency has been investigating possible wrongdoing by the
\nmanagement of Bank Lippo when it published two different third
\nquarter financial reports late last year. The reports have
\nmislead the public, analysts say, causing the bank's share price
\nto fall.<\/p>\n
There has been suspicion that the bank's management had
\ndeliberately attempted to bring the share price down to allow its
\nformer owners, the members of the Riady family, to regain control
\nof the bank at a very low price. Bank Lippo has been 59 percent
\nowned by the government since an expensive bailout in the late
\n1990s.<\/p>\n
Bank Indonesia, the central bank, has been investigating
\nwhether the bank's management and commissioners had violated
\nbanking regulations, while the Directorate General of Financial
\nInstitutions at the finance ministry has been probing the bank's
\nauditor and appraisal firms linked to the financial reports.<\/p>\n
As public demands rise for the authorities to sanction the
\nbank's management and board of commissioners for alleged fraud
\nintended to destroy Bank Lippo's capital base and share price,
\nHerwidayatmo's remarks could be seen as a potential stumbling
\nblock to such action.<\/p>\n
And as the relevant state agencies have been under heavy
\npressure to deal with the case, this might well serve as a
\njustification not to impose tough sanctions on the perpetrators.<\/p>\n
Earlier, hopes were high that it would be judgment day on
\nMarch 17 and that those involved in the Lippo affair would face
\nsevere punishment for causing losses to the state.<\/p>\n
Herwidayatmo argued that Bapepam needed more time because it
\nmight widen the scope of its probe beyond the dual financial
\nreports into other areas, such as possible share price
\nmanipulation and unreported share transactions.<\/p>\n
Reports earlier said that a number of stock traders working on
\nbehalf of the former owners of Bank Lippo were involved in
\ntrading manipulation to push the bank's shares down.<\/p>\n
PT Lippo E-Net, a company owned by the Riadys, had also been
\naccused of quietly amassing the bank's shares via the stock
\nmarket at very low prices without reporting the transactions to
\nthe market authority as required by law. This company now owns
\nabout 12 percent of Bank Lippo shares, up from 8.1 percent
\npreviously.<\/p>\n
Any such moves would be illegal as, according to capital
\nmarket regulations, an investor owning a minimum of 5 percent of
\na publicly listed company who wishes to increase its ownership
\nhas to notify the capital market watchdog.<\/p>\n
A group of analysts and anticorruption crusaders had
\npreviously asked Bapepam to widen the scope of the investigation.<\/p>\n
"As for Bapepam, we're investigating the dual reports as part
\nof one package together with possible manipulation (involving
\nshare transactions). But whether all will be announced at the
\nsame time (on March 17) remains to be seen as the probes are
\nstill underway," Herwidayatmo said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/bapepam-says-it-needs-more-time-to-complete-lippo-probe-1447893297",
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