BI comments on HongkongBank fraud
BI comments on HongkongBank fraud
JAKARTA (JP): After being silent for weeks, Bank Indonesia, the central bank, finally issued a statement yesterday on the alleged fraud involving Rp 79 billion (US$34.5 million), which hit HongkongBank's branch office here recently.
Paul Sutopo, the managing director of the central bank, said that some of the transfer orders sent to HongkongBank from three European banks have been found to be fake.
The validity of other orders are being assessed, he said, indicating the possibility that not all the suspicious transfer orders sent to HongkongBank were counterfeit.
"Some of the transfer orders are fake while the others are being investigated," he told Commission VII of the House of Representatives in a hearing.
Answering commission members' questions about the alleged fraud, which hit HongkongBank early this month, Paul said that the money transferred could have been in either rupiah or foreign currencies.
"If the transfer orders were real, HongkongBank would be able to recoup the funds which have been transferred from the three European banks," he said. "It means that there will be no fraud involved."
Asked if the alleged fraud involved a money laundering practice, Paul replied that such an allegation should be traced from the sources of the funds in the three European banks.
He said the alleged fraud most probably occurred due to the weakness of the internal auditing of HongkongBank because, based on a preliminary assessment, the clearing and settlement of the transfer orders in the local banks met all the standard procedures.
The police are also still investigating the alleged fraud, which has caused losses of about Rp 79 billion from HongkongBank.
According to the police investigation, HongkongBank received, in late December, fake orders sent from Agro Impact, an Italian company, through Union Bank of Switzerland, Swiss Bank Corporation of Zurich and Dresden Bank of Germany to transfer a sum of Rp 165 billion to two local companies.
The transfer orders worth Rp 50 billion from Union Bank and Rp 18 billion from Dresden Bank were rejected while the other orders were accepted.
According to earlier reports, Henri O. Vendidjo, from the Philippines, is believed to be the main suspect of the alleged fraud. It is thought he had successfully withdrawn Rp 79 billion from Modern Bank, through which the HongkongBank had transferred the money to the beneficiary of the orders sent by the three European banks.
He is still at large. Another suspect, Hans Wowor, was arrested when he was about to withdraw Rp 18 billion from Unibank, another local bank. (hen)