Bank Aspac ignored BI warning: Witnesses
Bank Aspac ignored BI warning: Witnesses
JAKARTA (JP): The court trying a former Bank Aspac director
charged with corruption heard on Monday the bank continued to
misappropriate the government's liquidity support funds despite
warnings from the central bank.
Hifni Arkian, the director of Bank Indonesia's auditing
directorate, testified at the South Jakarta District Court that
Bank Aspac ignored the central bank's warnings not to misallocate
the Rp 1.5 trillion in funds it received to help settle its
liquidity problems.
Hendrawan Haryono, along with former Bank Aspac president
Setiawan Harjono, are accused of misappropriating Rp 583.4
billion (US$63.4 million) of the liquidity support funds from
February 1998 to February 1999.
The witness said that based on an initial audit, Bank
Indonesia first warned Bank Aspac on Dec. 28, 1998, not to
channel any of the liquidity support to companies affiliated with
the bank's owners, shareholders, commissioners or members of the
board of directors.
Hifni said he was not aware of Bank Aspac's true financial
condition until he received the results of a second audit on Feb.
16, 1999.
The central bank repeated its warning to Bank Aspac on Feb.
17.
He said that after learning of Bank Aspac's financial
condition from the second audit, he called a number of Aspac's
directors on March 4 and rebuked them for misallocating the
liquidity support funds.
Hendrawan, the bank's former director of credit, also is
accused of allocating a portion of the support funds for foreign
exchange trading and to finance the operations of several
corporations affiliated with Bank Aspac.
Both Hendrawan and Setiawan were arrested last April.
Setiawan, who will be tried separately, has yet to appear in
court because he is being treated at Mitra Keluarga Hospital in
East Jakarta.
Prosecutor Sidik Latukonsina charged Hendrawan, 46, with
corruption, which carries a maximum sentence of life
imprisonment.
The Bank Aspac officials are the first to be taken to court
for misappropriating the government's liquidity support funds.
Attorney General Marzuki Darusman said earlier his office planned
to take legal action against officials from several other banks,
including Bank Central Dagang, Bank Dewa Rutji and Bank Orient.
These are among the 39 banks closed down by the government
last year for violating banking rulings and for the inability of
their owners to provide the necessary capital to help finance the
recapitalization of their banks.
The hearing will resume next Monday, at which time the court
is scheduled to hear testimony from other witnesses. (01)