Aseam Bank's ex-director testifies

JAKARTA (JP): A retired director of a private bank has testified that his bank had been used by five defendants on trial for a Rp 7 billion (US$2.9 million) fraud.

The former director of Aseam Bank, Muda Siregar Siagian, said Tuesday he was only aware of the scandal after he was informed by a staff member at Bank Indonesia, the central bank. Two of the five defendants tried at the Central Jakarta District Court were BI employees.

The two, Nasran Amar and Ayub Surtarya, are charged with defrauding Bank Indonesia. They were allegedly part of a plot to open a fake money transfer.

Siagian said his employees later alerted him of the transfer of Rp 7 billion to his bank's account from the central bank.

"The account was transferred by a man called Dahlan, whom he did not know, to be used by PT Delta Kayu, a private company," he said.

Siagian said the company wanted to take over a bad loan of Rp 1.9 billion from another company.

He added that Aseam Bank issued checks worth Rp 6.6 billion for PT Delta Kayu. According to an agreement between the company and his bank, PT Delta Kayu had to pay Rp 400 million every month to Aseam.

Judge Abbas Sumantri said he was curious about Aseam Bank's swift action in issuing the checks and whether the bank was involved.

The prosecutor said Aseam Bank's account at Bank Indonesia was used to receive a fake transfer made by a BI employee. (13)