AGO detains former Petral boss

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.