Attorney General comes under fire from Texmaco
JAKARTA (JP): The giant business group Texmaco protested against Attorney General Marzuki Darusman on Friday for moving too quickly to announce its owner Marimutu Sinivasan as a suspect in a Rp 9.6 trillion (US$1.3 billion) loan scandal at state banks without first interrogating him.
Texmaco's legal representative, Adnan Buyung Nasution, said Marzuki's decision to name Sinivasan as a suspect was "premature" and "reckless".
"His statement was inappropriate for an attorney general," Buyung told reporters during a press conference at the Shangri-La Hotel.
Marzuki on Thursday named Sinivasan as a suspect shortly after receiving documents containing Texmaco's loan transactions from State Minister of Investment and State Enterprises Empowerment Laksamana Sukardi.
Earlier on Monday, Laksamana told House members that between Nov. 1997 and Feb. 1998, the publicly listed company obtained $754 million and Rp 1.9 trillion in loans, mostly in preshipment export facilities from Bank Indonesia (BI) through Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) and Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) with the aid of then president Soeharto.
In their defense, Texmaco and BNI said the facilities were prepared by the government to bail out export-oriented companies.
Allegations of Corruption, Collusion and Nepotism (KKN) practices became apparent with Sinivasan's letter to Soeharto, seeking the latter's intervention in disbursing the loans, which exceeded the authority of the BI governor.
According to Laksamana, the Texmaco loans violated central bank rulings in order to gain the preshipment facilities, including breaching the legal lending limit of Bank BNI.
"He (Marzuki) just received the documents yesterday, and he was already able to name Sinivasan a suspect," Buyung said.
He said Marzuki should have thoroughly studied the documents and cross-checked the facts and investigated Sinivasan before making his move.
"Otherwise everyone could become suspects merely on someone else's reports."
The lawyer did not say whether he would take legal action against the attorney general.
Buyung refrained from giving any legal opinion on the case saying that he had only received copies of Sukardi's report and needed time to study it.
Buyung, who has represented Texmaco for the past two years, expressed his frustration at how Marzuki handled his client, saying that Sinivasan deserved fair treatment.
Marzuki had also imposed a travel ban on Sinivasan as well as on his brother Marimutu Manimaren and Texmaco's commissioner S. Wairo, thus preventing all three from leaving the country.
Buyung accused the media of "unbalanced coverage" of the Texmaco case and warned that in the long run it could hurt the company and its huge businesses.
"Texmaco is running very well and orders are streaming in, but the company could collapse anyway if this fiasco continues," he said.
He said once the court finds Sinivasan not guilty, it would be too late to save the company.
Sinivasan, who attended the media briefing, expressed disappointment over Marzuki's decision.
"During 35 years in business we (Texmaco) have succeeded without any special facilities and preferential treatment from the government," he said.
He said he respected Marzuki because of his involvement in human rights activities, and added that Marzuki would surely listen to Texmaco's explanations.
He said he had yet to read Laksamana's documents and he intended to explain the situation to Marzuki after studying the documents.
Asked whether he felt there was a conspiracy to undermine Texmaco, Sinivasan responded that he would have to collect more information before issuing any comments. (03)