Bankers get five years, fined Rp 5b for tax fraud
Bankers get five years, fined Rp 5b for tax fraud
Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Makassar
A district court in Makassar, South Sulawesi, on Thursday
sentenced two bankers to five years jail and fined each of them
Rp 5 billion (US$537,000) for tax fraud.
Paulce Hans, a former Universal Bank director at its Makassar
branch, and Irma Soedjono, the bank's former marketing director,
were proven guilty in a corruption scam involving Rp 41.9
billion.
The Makassar District Court convicted the defendants of
involvement in stealing tax money from state-owned cement firm PT
Semen Tonasa and oil company Pertamina, which were paid through
the bank between 2001 and 2002.
Prosecutors had demanded that both Paulce and Irma be jailed
for 10 years and eight years respectively, and be fined Rp 100
million each or an additional six months in prison.
The court ordered the two to be sent directly to prison.
Earlier, the same court had imprisoned four other persons in
the same case, including Makassar post office official Iwan
Zulkarnain and local tax office official Asriadi.
Iwan and Asriadi, the key suspects in the scam, received 16
years and 10 years in jail respectively in October 2003. The
court also ordered Iwan to pay Rp 27 billion and Asriadi Rp 13
billion in compensation for the losses to the state.
The two are currently serving their jail terms at the
Nusakambangan island prison in Cilacap, Central Java, after being
transferred recently from Makassar.
The two other convicts were Charles Hutasoit, a former
operational manager of Makassar's Bank Tabungan Pensiun Negara,
and his accomplice Mustafa Lahamude. They were each jailed for
four years and six years earlier this year.
The panel of three judges led by Andi Haedar, who is the court
chief, told Thursday's trial that both Paulce and Irma were found
guilty of violating Article 49 (b) of Banking Law No. 10/1998 for
their deliberate failure to take necessary measures to uphold
banking regulations.
The convicts had approved the disbursements of cross-checks
worth Rp 41.9 billion in tax money from PT Semen Tonasa and
Pertamina to a personal account belonging to Iwan Zulkarnain, the
judges said.
Irma admitted that she was ordered by Paulce through a memo to
cash the cross-checks into Iwan's account. Under existing laws
such money cannot be disbursed into a personal account.
The disbursements were made 14 times from January 2001 through
July 2002.
"The defendants are legally and convincingly proven to have
violated Article 49 (b) of Banking Law No. 10/1998. They helped
smooth the disbursement of taxes from PT Semen Tonasa and
Pertamina to Iwan Zulkarnain's personal account, even though the
defendants knew that the move was against regulations," Haedar
said.
The court said that Iwan and Asriadi pocketed the taxes that
they collected from the two companies, instead of paying them to
the state.
Asriadi meanwhile filed tax forms with his office as proof
that the companies had already paid the taxes.
He admitted to receiving Rp 13 billion of the money, while
Iwan received the rest. The two used the money to buy cars,
motorcycles, plots of land and houses.
Prosecutors have confiscated five cars, two motorcycles,
including one Harley Davidson, a plot of land and a house, and
money from several bank accounts belonging to Iwan and Asriadi.