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.