AGO halts Sukamdani's graft probe

JAKARTA: The Attorney General's Office has dropped its investigation of hotelier Sukamdani Gito Sardjono and associate Adriansyah Umar Maki for the alleged misuse of Rp 214 billion of the state's banking emergency loans because the prosecutors had found that no crime had been committed, deputy office spokesman Chuck Suryosumpeno said on Monday.

Suryosumpeno confirmed Sukamdani's statement to reporters while in Surakarta, Central Java, earlier in the day, that he was no longer a suspect and that his travel ban had been lifted in May which enabled him to visit Beijing twice since.

Sukamdani, the owner of Sahid Hotels and commissioner to the now-defunct Bank Dagang Indonesia, was accused of retracting his personal deposit totaling Rp 500 million and the deposit of the Mangadeg Foundation he was chairing from the bank when it was in debit in 1999.

Another suspect, the bank's director Adriansyah, was accused of rescinding his relative's deposit. The two were also accused of disbursing call money during the banking rush in 1999.

The prosecutors claimed that none of the payments used the state's money. --JP