Bank Exim rejects court's decision on bankruptcy ruling

JAKARTA (JP): Bank Ekspor Impor Indonesia (Bank Exim) has rejected the Jakarta Commercial Court's decision to turn down a bankruptcy petition it filed against multifinance firm PT Pacific International Finance, a unit of the defunct Bank Pacific.

Bank Exim's lawyer Friederich Yunadi of Yunadi & Associates told The Jakarta Post on Friday that the court decision was unfair.

He said his client had appealed to the Supreme Court, asking it to approve the bankruptcy claim against the multifinance company.

"We filed an appeal on Thursday because the court's ruling was not wise," he said.

The commercial court rejected the bankruptcy claim filed by Bank Exim on Wednesday on the grounds that the case lacked "simplicity".

Yunadi said that Pacific International Finance owed Bank Exim US$73 million in commercial notes, guaranteed by Bank Pacific, one of the banks closed by the government in November.

A lawyer representing Pacific International, Doni Antares Irawan, told the Post on Friday that the plaintiff should have sued Bank Pacific as the guarantor for the notes.

"Since Bank Pacific was the guarantor, the plaintiff should have filed a bankruptcy petition against it," he said.

He said the multifinance firm had sold all of its assets worth Rp 2.3 trillion to Bank Pacific in August 1996 and the creditors knew about the asset transfer.

"So it is not wise for Bank Exim to sue only Pacific International, which sold its assets to the guarantor," he said.

Bank Exim's lawyer Yunadi, however, said the commercial court's decision to turn down his client's insolvency claim against Pacific International was against the principle of the country's bankruptcy law.

It seems the judge does not really understand the law, he said.

Since its opening in September, the Jakarta Commercial Court, the first and only bankruptcy court in the country, has made several controversial decisions.

Early last month, the commercial court declared property firm Modernland Realty, with assets exceeding Rp 1 trillion, bankrupt due to a minor claim worth Rp 94 million by two individual apartment buyers. (aly)