Blaming game continues in Bapindo scam trial

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)