BI denies directing Gunung Agung in Arta Prima deal

JAKARTA (JP): Bank Indonesia, the central bank, yesterday denied it had directed PT Gunung Agung and Group to enter negotiations with Kim Johanes Mulia on a Bank Arta Prima deal which led to a promissory notes scam.

The head of Bank Indonesia's bank management and development division, Sukarwan, said here yesterday that the central bank never decided which investors would take over banks.

"The shareholders choose the investors... What Bank Indonesia does is examine potential investors wanting to take over a bank, including those who wanted to acquire Bank Arta Prima," Sukarwan said.

Gunung Agung's lawyer Denny Kailimang said Tuesday that Gunung Agung had wanted to sell Bank Arta Prima to Bank Artha Graha.

But Gunung Agung was directed by the central bank to negotiate with Kim Johanes, who promised to bring in the President Soeharto-chaired Dharmais Foundation as his partner, Denny said.

Kim Johanes, with Jeffie Geovanie and Hedijanto, a Dharmais executive acting in his personal capacity, formed PT Jagata Primabumi to buy Bank Arta Prima.

Sukarwan also denied that Bank Indonesia was forced by certain influential people to chose Kim Johanes to salvage the ailing Bank Arta Prima.

"I don't think there was any pressure, or divine or half- divine memos directing us to appoint Jagata as the savior of Bank Arta Prima," Sukarwan said.

But Sukarwan refused to say if Hedijanto had used Dharmais when he asked for a recommendation from Bank Indonesia, saying: "That question is sensitive and difficult to answer".

Jagata Primabumi bought Bank Arta Prima from Gunung Agung in July 1995. In the deal Jagata agreed to take over Gunung Agung's debts of Rp 187 billion (US$76.7 million at the current rate) to Bank Arta Prima and Rp 174 billion to other financial institutions.

But Kim asked Gunung Agung to issue promissory notes (promes) worth Rp 174 billion to pay off Gunung Agung's debts to the financial institutions. Kim also asked Gunung Agung to issue promes worth Rp 150 billion. They were all underwritten by Bank Arta Prima.

Denny said Gunung Agung agreed to issue the promes because Kim promised to settle them all.

He said Gunung Agung had had no involvement with Bank Arta Prima since the transfer of the bank's ownership to Jagata on July 27, 1995, so all matters related to the promes scam should be referred to Jagata.

Bank Arta Prima's new Jagata-installed management converted promes worth Rp 107 billion into the bank's capital to artificially increase it to about Rp 207 billion, Denny said.

He said that on Aug. 3, promes worth Rp 2.5 billion were cashed by the holders through Bank Arta Prima.

He said Kim used some of the promes for other transactions, meaning that some of the promes had changed hands.

They included promes worth Rp 9.1 billion currently held by a man with the initials S.P. at Bank Delta's Kelapa Gading branch and promes worth Rp 62.7 billion held by Kim-owned PT Detta Marina at state-owned Bank Pembangunan Indonesia's Rasuna Said branch.

But last March Jagata suddenly sold Bank Arta Prima to Bank Artha Graha, which discovered and reported the promes scam to police.

The police then arrested Oka Masagung, Gunung Agung's former chairman, along with Kim and two former directors and two former commissioners of Bank Arta Prima.

Bank Indonesia's bank supervision director Hendrobudijanto said in a letter to Hedijanto last April that all promes issued by Gunung Agung and underwritten by Bank Arta Prima must be settled by Jagata Primabumi.

Bank Indonesia governor J. Soedradjad Djiwandono yesterday refused to explain the Bank Arta Prima debacle, which resulted in the arrest of the six men.

"Why do you all keep questioning me? This is not the same as a naked people (sex) scandal," Soedradjad told journalists after meeting with President Soeharto.

In the meeting, Soedradjad was accompanied by Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad and State Minister of National Development Planning Ginandjar Kartasasmita. (rid)