AGO detains former Petral boss
Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Zainul Arifin, former vice president of PT Pertamina Energy Trading Limited (Petral), a subsidiary of state oil and gas firm Pertamina, has been arrested on corruption charges.
Attorney General's Office (AGO) spokesman Masyudi Ridwan said on Friday, the day after the arrest, that Zainul was being held at the AGO's detention facility.
He said the case began in 2003, when Zainul deposited some US$9 million of the company's funds in the Credit Suisse Singapore Bank (CSSB), without the approval of the board of commissioners.
He said that some $8 million was later transferred to a separate bank account at CSSB belonging to a man named Did Budiman Garna, who allegedly misused the funds.
Didi was questioned by investigators from the interdepartmental anticorruption team chaired by Hendarman Supandji. Didi said he spent the $8 million on obtaining working contracts for Petral.
"We're also informing the deputy attorney general (Basrief Arief) about this case since he is the chief of the team tasked with locating the missing dollars," Masyudi said.
Didi was earlier detained at the West Java Prosecutor's Office in Bandung on fraud charges in a different case.
Masyudi said the prosecutors would also question other senior officials of Petral.
"When we interrogated him, Zainul claimed the president director (Ari H. Sumarno) knew what he was doing, but when we confirmed his statement with the president director, he (Ari) said that he did not know about it," Masyudi added.
Petral is also filing a civil suit against CSSB in Singapore. The company has hired Singaporean lawyers for the lawsuit, a decision that has irritated the AGO.
"I can't understand why Petral hired Singaporean lawyers since we have law experts here too," Masyudi said.
However, Masyudi acknowledged that the results of the criminal investigation could influence the outcome at the civil court.
The graft probe at Petral is one of many cases that are being investigated by the anticorruption team. Apart from investigating Petral, the team is also investigating state-owned airport management company PT Angkasa Pura and fertilizer company PT Pupuk Kaltim.
The alleged corruption at PT Angkasa Pura caused state loss of around Rp 1.92 billion (US$192,000), while graft at Pupuk Kaltim reached more than Rp 200 billion.