Ex-bank owners agree to surrender more assets<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Three former bank owners agreed on Wednesday to
\nsurrender additional assets and provide personal guarantees to
\nthe Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) to repay their
\ndebts to the government.<\/p>\n
Attorney General Marzuki Darusman said the ex-bank owners,
\nAnthony Salim, Bob Hasan and Sjamsul Nursalim, submitted lists of
\nthe additional assets they would surrender.<\/p>\n
\"They have principally agreed to pledge more assets and
\nprovide personal guarantees,\" Marzuki said following a meeting of
\nthe Financial Sector Policy Committee (FSPC).<\/p>\n
He said IBRA would study the assets and decide whether they
\nwere sufficient to cover the obligations of the former bank
\nowners.<\/p>\n
\"For the time being, the ex-bank owners are being
\ncooperative,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Anthony is the owner of the Salim Group, which formerly
\ncontrolled Bank Central Asia (BCA). Sjamsul owns the Gadjah
\nTunggal Group, which owned the now defunct Bank BDNI, and Hasan
\nwas the co-owner of the now defunct Bank BUN.<\/p>\n
FSPC, which groups senior economic ministers and the attorney
\ngeneral, earlier gave the former bank owners until Wednesday
\nevening to agree to surrender additional assets and provide
\npersonal guarantees or risk legal sanction.<\/p>\n
The committee decides key transaction made by IBRA.<\/p>\n
A government source, however, said FSPC initially expected the
\nex-bank owners to attend the meeting personally, but instead they
\nonly sent a letter to the committee.<\/p>\n
The source said that since the letter did not have a strong
\nlegal basis, the ex-bank owners had been told to come to the
\noffice of the coordinating minister for the economy on Friday to
\nsign a legally binding document.<\/p>\n
The former bank owners, who are among the country's top
\nbusiness tycoons, owe hundreds of trillions of rupiah to the
\ngovernment after their banks received massive liquidity support
\nbetween 1998 and 1999, during the height of the country's
\nfinancial crisis. The banks also violated the legal lending limit
\nby channeling most of their money to affiliated business groups.<\/p>\n
The tycoons signed the Master of Settlement and Acquisition
\nAgreement (MSAA) in 1999 with IBRA, under which they pledged
\nassets to repay their debts to the government.<\/p>\n
But the pledged assets were not sufficient to cover the debts.
\nFormer chief economic minister Kwik Kian Gie was the first to
\ndemand the MSAA be revised.<\/p>\n
The Salim Group, for example, owes the government
\napproximately Rp 53 trillion, but the assets it surrendered were
\nvalued at about Rp 20 trillion.<\/p>\n
Following a Cabinet reshuffle, the new economic team demanded
\nthe former bank owners surrender additional assets and provide
\npersonal guarantees that they would make good on their debts.<\/p>\n
But the business groups initially attempted to resist these
\nnew demands by lobbying government officials and legislators.<\/p>\n
\"They think there are government officials that can be
\nbought,\" Coordinating Minister for the Economy Rizal Ramli said
\nrecently.<\/p>\n
Rizal said the Attorney General's Office had conducted an
\ninvestigation and found that the conglomerates still owned
\nnumerous assets both in Indonesia and overseas.<\/p>\n
In addition to the three ex-bank owners, businessman
\nSudwikatmono also signed the MSAA agreement.<\/p>\n
But Marzuki said Sudwikatmono, the brother-in-law of former
\npresident Soeharto, was not among the ex-bank owners who had been
\ngiven the Wednesday deadline to pledge additional assets.<\/p>\n
\"The government is currently focusing on the three
\nconglomerates,\" Marzuki said.<\/p>\n
A government source said Sudwikatmono was not included with
\nthe three other ex-bank owners because his bank had not violated
\nthe legal lending limit. (rei)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/ex-bank-owners-agree-to-surrender-more-assets-1447893297",
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