Bank Mandiri officials demand to remain free
Bank Mandiri officials demand to remain free
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Three top Bank Mandiri officials declared suspects in a lending
scam investigation have requested the Attorney General's Office
(AGO) not detain them while the investigation proceeds, their
lawyer says.
M. Assegaf assured prosecutors that his clients, Bank Mandiri
president director E.C.W. Neloe, vice president I Wayan Pugeg,
and director for corporate banking M. Sholeh Tasripan, would not
flee the country because the authorities had imposed a travel ban
on them.
"There is no urgency for any detention during the
investigation process," he was quoted by detikcom as saying on
Thursday.
Assegaf said the office had yet to respond to the request.
The AGO declared the three suspects in connection with a
lending scam at the giant state-owned bank but made no move to
detain them, inaction that was earlier criticized by observers.
In the recent past, bankers and businesspeople wanted in
connection with high-profile financial scams have easily fled the
country with their ill-gotten gains. Fugitives include Maria
Pauline Lumowa (Bank BNI), Irawan Salim (Bank Global), Bambang
Sutrisno (Bank Surya) and Edy Tansil (Golden Key case).
Responding to the criticism, Attorney General Abdul Rahman
Saleh said the office would decide whether to detain the three
bankers after a questioning session on Monday.
"We'll wait for Monday after the inquiry session. They may be
detained or they may not be," he said prior to a Cabinet meeting
on Thursday.
The three were named suspects after the AGO conducted a probe
into alleged irregularities in the channeling of loans to four
companies, whose top officials have also been named suspects.
The AGO is now planning to expand its investigation into four
other companies including PT Bakrie Telecom (owned by
Coordinating Minister for the Economy Aburizal Bakrie), PT Semen
Bosowa Maros (owned by Erwin Aksa, a nephew of Vice President
Jusuf Kalla), PT Domba Mas, and PT Batavindo. The AGO has said it
intended to investigate a total of 28 companies that received
more than Rp 12 trillion (US$1.28 billion) loans from Bank
Mandiri.
Aburizal said on Thursday that there was nothing wrong in the
channeling of the Bank Mandiri credit facility to Bakrie Telecom,
and maintained that the company had serviced the debt properly.
Bakrie Telecom, meanwhile, denied several reports that Bank
Mandiri's credit to the company turned into non-performing loans.
"Bakrie Telecom has always paid its debt principal and
interest off on time, sustaining a collectivity level of one --
meaning that the credits are performing loans -- according to the
latest audit by Ernst and Young," Bakrie and Brothers senior
corporate communications manager Lalu Mara Satria Wangsa said in
a written statement.
Erwin of Semen Bosowa also said his company had properly
serviced its debts to Bank Mandiri.
After meeting State Minister of State Enterprises Sugiharto on
Thursday, Bank Mandiri president commissioner Binhadi said he had
been asked to adopt a hands-on role to supervise the bank.
"Fortunately, the case has so far not impacted negatively on
the bank's operations," he said.
Sugiharto said the three Bank Mandiri suspects would not be
immediately suspended from their jobs, even though they would
soon be charged with corruption offences.
He would not comment on whether the three would be dismissed
during the May 16 shareholders meeting.
Sugiharto earlier said he would replace any state-owned
enterprise officials named suspects in criminal cases.