BI denies directing Gunung Agung in Arta Prima deal
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)