Bankers arrested for fraud

Bankers arrested for fraud

BANDAR LAMPUNG, Lampung: The local prosecution office is
currently investigating two senior bank executives, suspected to
have embezzled a total of Rp 1.5 billion from the regional
government bank BPD Lampung.

The two men held strategic posts in the bank's branch in
Metro, Central Lampung, allowing them to siphon off large sums of
funds virtually undetected since 1990, said Antasari, assistant
to the special criminal prosecutor.

The prosecutors said the two men in 1990 approached about 200
farmers offering to arrange loans for them. As collateral they
asked the farmers to submit their land titles, the Antara news
agency reported.

It was not until recently that a number of farmers returned to
the bank asking for a follow up on their credit applications,
prompting the bank to conduct investigations because in their
books the loans had been extended.

Antasari did not rule out the possibility that other
executives may have been involved in the scam. (11)