Accounts linked to BNI scandal revealed
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Nine banks have reported to the Financial Transaction and Report Analysis Center (PPATK) that they had opened accounts belonging to those allegedly involved in the Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) lending scandal, PPATK chairman Yunus Husein said on Tuesday.
The money laundering watchdog was still reviewing the reports and it was expected that they would give those soon to the police and attorney general's office, Yunus said.
"We aim to help the police in the case, who are in charge in the investigation. Now we have new information from nine banks so the police can follow it up," he told reporters, without naming the banks nor the account holders.
Yunus attributed the banks' willingness to be transparent to the newly amended Law on Money Laundering, which requires banks to report any suspicious financial transactions to PPATK.
It is still unclear if the police will be able to use the information in the investigation, although, according to the new regulations, it should include the freezing of the accounts.
Police investigators have so far detained five people for their alleged involvement in the BNI loan scam, with six others on a "persons of interest" list.
Of the five suspects that have been detained, two of them are said to be top officials with the giant publicly listed bank, while the others are from companies that have allegedly profited from the bogus export transactions, which, it was later proven, had never actually occurred.
The three are Jeffrey Baso, a director of Gramarindo's unit of PT Sri Ranu Caraka Pasifik, Afilia Widarta and Yudhi Baso, both directors of Gramarindo and Petindo Group.
Earlier this month, the police also detained Edy Santoso, the head of the foreign customer service division of BNI's Kebayoran Baru branch in South Jakarta and Koesadiyono, manager of the BNI Kebayoran Baru branch.
The BNI scandal started late last year when the bank's Kebayoran Baru branch, without first conducting sound credit appraisals, began to disburse letters of credit to local firms for supposed export transactions.
Under the letters of credit (L/Cs) used by the exporters, which were guaranteed by banks in Kenya, Switzerland and the Cook Islands, they claimed to be exporting selected commodities to the Republic of Congo and Kenya.
During the December 2002 to July 2003 period, the total amount that was actually disbursed stood at Rp 1.7 trillion (US$201.18 million).
Given the huge amount of money and the fact that the foreign banks that issued the L/Cs were not BNI correspondent banks, the bank has been widely condemned for its poor internal controls, although BNI president Saifuddien Hasan blamed it on collusion between the debtors and certain BNI officials.
Meanwhile, Suad Husnan, a deputy at the Office of the State Minister For State Enterprises which oversees financial services and the banking industry, said on Tuesday that his office expected to receive by the end of this week reports from a bank's internal team regarding the case.
"We have yet to receive the reports. But, we expect to receive them this week, Friday at the latest," Suad said.
An internal team, comprised many of the bank's commissioners, has been established to look into the case and give recommendations to the state enterprises office as to what actions should be taken to punish those involved in the scandals, as well as how to return the money.
Suad also did not rule out suggestions to add three more commissioners to the current four, in a bid to strengthen the bank's supervisory and control roles.