Blaming game continues in Bapindo scam trial

JAKARTA (JP): Two former Bapindo directors testified yesterday that they knew nothing about the status of the enormous loans made to Eddy Tansil until 1992, in marked contrast to the testimony of other witnesses.

Bambang Kuntjoro and Towil Heryoto said the board of directors did not receive a report on the status of Tansil's loans until April 1992, three years after the bank began extending him credit.

The two men were testifying in the trial of Maman Suparman, former deputy manager of the bank's Jakarta branch, who is accused of helping Tansil bypass standard scrutiny in obtaining $175 million in loans.

Their testimony contradicted a number of senior officers from Bapindo's head office, who insisted in earlier testimony that the board was fully informed on all the Tansil transactions.

Maman has also said that he helped Tansil, which involved changing the status of a letter of credit, under the assumption that the directors were fully aware of his actions.

The South Jakarta District Court which is trying Maman, adjourned until Monday to confront Bambang with Heru Santoso, a head office executive who earlier testified that he passed all facsimile messages from Maman on to the directors.

"The fault lies with head office staffers who directly supervised the branch office," Towil told the court.

Bambang, in his testimony gave the same answer.

Towil also confirmed that allowing Tansil to cash in on the loans without the approval of the directors was in violation of standard banking procedures.

Bambang and Towil, as well as two other former Bapindo directors, are also suspects in the Rp 1.3 trillion loan scandal at the government bank. Their cases will be brought before the court this month. Tansil, the owner of the Golden Key Group, is on trial in a separate court.

Maman has been accused of taking money from Tansil to help him with the loans.

Both Bambang and Towil said the directors, after discovering that something very wrong was going on with Tansil's loans, decided at a meeting on June 2, 1992, to cut their losses and stop disbursing further funds for Tansil.

The decision, however, was reversed later in the day upon the orders of finance minister Sumarlin, who insisted that Bapindo fully extend all the money it had committed to Tansil, they said.

Bambang said the directors were aware of the huge financial risk but they were "helpless" in the face of such an order.

Bapindo had by then disbursed $208 million of the $436 million pledged to Tansil.

Towil acknowledged that the loan scandal was a "calamity" for him personally. (05)