BCA employee jailed for embezzlement

BCA employee jailed for embezzlement

JAKARTA (JP): West Jakarta District Court sentenced an
executive of privately run Bank Central Asia (BCA) yesterday to
eight months in jail for swindling Rp 396 million from customers.

Presiding judge Parwoto said Budiyanto Teguh, 33, the customer
service head of the BCA branch on Jl. Gajah Mada, was proven
guilty of misappropriating the funds from the accounts of 34
customers between February 1996 and October 1997.

"The defendant has damaged people's trust in the banking
industry, especially the customers' trust in BCA," Parwoto said.

But he said the panel of judges also considered the polite
behavior of the defendant during the trial, his acknowledgement
of his crime and the fact he had ceded his home to the bank as
compensation in deciding on sentencing.

In committing the crime, Parwoto said the father of three
learned how to operate computers at the bank from his
subordinates, identified as Kristin, Dwi and Hari.

The defendant transferred funds from customers to his account
after acquiring the computer passwords of the subordinates, he
said. "He then withdrew the (transferred) money from the bank's
automatic teller machines."

Budiyanto transferred funds when his subordinates were at
lunch or reporting the bank's daily transactions at Bank
Indonesia, he said.

The scam remained undetected for months because Budiyanto
identified rarely used accounts.

But it unraveled when several customers reported their money
had been withdrawn without their authorization.

Parwoto said the defendant was proved guilty of violating
Article 374 of the Criminal Code, which carries a maximum
punishment of five years in jail.

Both prosecutor Baskara and the defendant are considering
whether to appeal.

Baskara earlier asked the court to sentence Budiyanto to one
year in jail. (jun)