BBD employee jailed for embezzlement

JAKARTA (JP): The Central Jakarta District Court sentenced an employee of state Bank Bumi Daya (BBD) on Monday to six years in jail and fined him Rp 5 million for embezzling Rp 630 million.

Presiding judge Abas Sumantri also ordered the defendant, Widya Setyohadi, who worked in the bank's clearing department in its Imam Bonjol branch in Central Jakarta, to return as much of the stolen money as possible to the bank.

"The defendant was found guilty of transferring the bank's money to his account, which caused losses of Rp 630 million to the state," Abas said.

According to the judge, Widya embezzled the bank's money by transferring it to his account since 1991. His actions were uncovered by an internal auditing team in February this year.

The auditors found that the money was then transferred to Widya's personal account at different banks in Cirebon and Bandung, both in West Java, as well as to his wife's account at a Bank Central Asia branch here, the judge said.

According to Abas, the defendant used the money to buy a Kijang van, renovate his house and pay off his credit card.

The defendant, he said, embezzled the money by using the inactive bank accounts of several customers before transferring the money to his personal Tabungan Jumbo BBD savings account at the bank.

"The defendant should have reported the transfer of money to his account to his supervisor, but he did not," Abas said.

Widya made all the illicit transfers from his personal computer at the bank, the judge said.

His actions were uncovered in February this year when the bank's auditors found that the defendant had transferred Rp 10 million to his account without reporting it to his supervisor, he said.

The bank's management then reported the case to the police, who then arrested Widya, Abas said.

The judge said the defendant had violated Article 1 (1.a) of Law No. 3/1973 on corruption. The article carries a maximum penalty of life sentence and/or a fine of Rp 30 million.

Prosecutor Agus Widodo earlier asked the court to sentence the defendant to seven years in jail.

Both the prosecutor and the defendant are considering whether to appeal the ruling. (jun)