Another BNI official added to suspects list
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.