Police release more suspects in BNI scandal<\/p>\n
P.C. Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Police have released more suspects in the Bank Negara Indonesia
\n(BNI) financial scandal on the grounds that the period of their
\ndetention permitted under existing legislation has lapsed.<\/p>\n
Without giving precise details, police deputy spokesman Brig.
\nGen. Soenarko said on Saturday that two other suspects -- Jefrey
\nBaso and Judi Baso -- had been released from police detention.<\/p>\n
Police earlier released one of the key suspects -- Adrian
\nWoworuntu -- for the same reason.<\/p>\n
Adrian is co-owner of Gramarindo, a business group that
\nreportedly received Rp 1.7 trillion (US$200 million) from
\npublicly listed BNI by redeeming 41 bogus letters of credit
\nissued by unreliable foreign banks. The other owner is Maria
\nPaulien Lumowa, an Indonesian-born Dutchwoman currently still at
\nlarge.<\/p>\n
Judi, on the other hand, is a director of PT Basomindo, a
\nsubsidiary of Gramarindo.<\/p>\n
"According to Article 24 of the Criminal Code Procedure we
\nhave to release a detainee if we fail to complete his or her
\ndossier after the maximum 120-day detention period is over,"
\nSoenarko said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The scandal revolves around the disbursement of export credit
\nworth Rp 1.7 trillion from December 2002 to July 2003 by BNI's
\nKebayoran Baru branch to eight Gramarindo subsidiaries, without
\ncompleting the necessary assessments.<\/p>\n
Police detected irregularities and alleged that the bills of
\nloading attached to the letters of credit were fraudulent, as the
\ngoods were never exported, but the export loans were still
\ndisbursed.<\/p>\n
Soenarko stressed that the release of three suspects did not
\nmean the end of the story as the police would still try their
\nbest to complete the dossiers, as requested by prosecutors.<\/p>\n
The police have put the three suspects under surveillance by
\nimposing a travel ban on them and requiring them to report to the
\npolice regularly.<\/p>\n
Police named 16 people as suspects in the high-profile
\nscandal, and, according to Soenarko, prosecutors completed four
\ncase files involving nine suspects, which were ready for trial.<\/p>\n
Investigators also submitted the dossiers of Nurcahyo, former
\nBNI deputy for Region X, and Haris Is Hartono, to the Jakarta
\nProsecutor's Office and were awaiting the prosecutor's response.<\/p>\n
Soenarko said the police were still completing four dossiers
\non five other suspects -- Adrian Woworuntu, Jefrey and Judi Baso,
\nJohn Hamenda and Rudi Sutopo.<\/p>\n
Investigators were currently discussing some of the evidence
\nin Adrian's case with two experts on criminal law to help
\nstrengthen their case.<\/p>\n
"For Jefrey and Judi Baso, we're still awaiting the result of
\nan examination of several documents from the National Police
\nforensic and criminology laboratory," Soenarko said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/police-release-more-suspects-in-bni-scandal-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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