Bank employee faces jail term

Bank employee faces jail term

JAKARTA (JP): Public prosecutor has demanded that the South Jakarta District Court jail a staff member of the Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) of Jl. Gatot Subroto branch office to five years for embezzling Rp 1.7 billion (more than US$770,000).

Prosecutor T.S. Limbong also asked the court on Wednesday to fine Kamal Pahsyah Rp 20 million for the offense.

The prosecutor also said he claimed the right to confiscate all material evidence, including three trucks, two fishing ships, a radio communication device, a house at the Taman Galaxy housing complex, a 375 square meter plot in Narogong, Bekasi, a type- writer and Rp 147.9 million in cash.

"The defendant is found guilty of violating article 1 and 28 of the Anti-Corruption Law number 3, issued in 1971 and article 64 of the Criminal Code," he told the court presided over by Judge Sudadi.

Violators of the article can be sentenced to twenty years imprisonment and fined Rp 30 million.

The fact that the defendant has caused financial losses for the state and thus hampered national development should be taken into consideration, the prosecutor said.

According to the prosecution, Kamal, an operation manager, embezzled the money between October 1994 and January 1995 by manipulating operational costs, including telephone, telex and electricity bills as well as maintenance costs.

On Oct. 19 last year, the defendant manipulated the telex bill of Rp 6.4 million into one of Rp 86.4 million, Limbong said.

On Nov.5 he changed the amount of maintenance costs from Rp 2 million to Rp 92 million, the prosecutor said.

Limbong said that in December last year Kamal manipulated operational costs and maintenance costs from Rp 25 million to Rp 625 million; and in January of this year from Rp 13 million to Rp 903 million.

Kamal had earlier admitted in court to having given Rp 100 million of the embezzled money to a prostitute.

The trial was adjourned until Dec.22 to hear Kamal's defense. (29)