Another BNI official added to suspects list
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Another high-ranking officer from Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) has been declared a suspect in a Rp 1.7 trillion scandal that has also cast some presidential candidates in a bad light.
National Police economic crimes division director Brig. Gen. Samuel Ismoko said that Nirwan Ali, the operational manager of BNI Kebayoran branch, had been summoned as a suspect on Wednesday.
"We have named Nirwan a suspect and interrogated him today," said Ismoko on the sidelines of a meeting between police and the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
Including Nirwan, police have named three BNI officers as suspects in the scam.
Other officers from the bank previously declared as suspects were BNI Kebayoran Baru branch head Kusadiyono and BNI Kebayoran Baru foreign customer service head Edi Santoso. Both officers are in police custody.
"We have not yet decided whether it is necessary to hold Nirwan in police custody," said Ismoko.
Police have declared nine people from companies involved in the scandal as suspects. Six suspects, including Richard Koutul of PT Metrantara, Judi Basso of PT Bassomasindo, Aprilla Widharta of PT Pan Kipros, Adrian Lumowa of PT Usaha Esa Indonesia, Olla Agam of PT Gramarindo Mega Indonesia and Jeffry Basso of PT Tri Rannu Caraka, are currently in police custody. Three others, Titik Pristiwanti of PT Binekatama Pasifik, owner of Gramarindo Group Maria Pauline Lumowa, and Adrian Waworuntu, are still at large.
Ismoko also said that police would check the sources of funds in 29 accounts and individuals receiving money from accounts involved in the scandal.
He declined to reveal the identity of the owners of 29 accounts suspected of receiving money from the scandal.
Rumors have been rife that three of Golkar's seven presidential aspirants received money from individuals implicated in the scandal.
Jusuf Kalla, one of the candidates, said on Monday that PT Bukaka Jasa Utama had signed a business agreement worth Rp 4.5 billion with one of those implicated in the scam but denied ownership in the company he claimed to be controlled by Gorontalo Governor Fadel Muhamad. Fadel is still one of Golkar's treasurers.
Two other candidates -- Akbar Tandjung and Gen. (ret) Wiranto -- have also denied receiving money from any of the BNI scandal suspects.
The scam centers around 41 bogus letters of credit worth Rp 1.7 trillion that BNI passed to a number of companies claiming to export commodities to some African countries.
Ismoko said police would use the money-laundering law to examine 29 accounts suspected of receiving money from the scandal.
"We shall use Article 33 of the money-laundering law to open and check the accounts. All we need is a letter signed by the National Police or city police chief to pursue the investigation," said Ismoko.
He said that the police would use the law on banking crimes first before resorting to the money-laundering law. Police hoped that the structure of the law would open every possibility for the police to investigate the case thoroughly.
National Police chief of detectives Erwin Mappaseng said previously that police would use several laws, including the Criminal Code, laws on corruption and banking crimes, and the money-laundering law, to investigate the suspects.
Many analysts hope that an investigation of the accounts could pinpoint who has received the money, and put an end to speculation over whether or not politicians were involved in the scandal.
A noted political analyst, Ikrar Nusa Bakti, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that if recent responses to the whole affair were any indication, the case was being used by one party to discredit another, with neither bothering to address the root of the problem: Corruption.
The result, he warned, was a political compromise, not a legal solution, whereby a party implicated in the BNI scandal was using another corruption case as a bargaining tool to defend itself.