BNI officials detained for graft

BNI officials detained for graft

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The Jakarta Police detained on Friday five executives of Bank
Negara Indonesia (BNI) Pondok Indah branch in South Jakarta for
allegedly providing loans worth Rp 46.46 billion (US$5.16
million) to fictitious companies.

"The five suspects are charged under Law No. 20/2001 on
anticorruption and Law No. 10/1998 on banking," police spokesman
Sr. Comr. Tjiptono said.

The anticorruption law carries a minimum sentence of four
years imprisonment and a maximum of 20 years and a minimum fine
of Rp 200 million and a maximum of Rp 1 billion.

Mochamad Supedi, the former head of BNI's Pondok Indah branch
and Noortjahjo Zunoor, BNI's deputy head of the Jakarta area,
were named suspects for authorizing bad credit.

Police said Mukhlis Budianto and Moejibur Rahman, both
marketing officers of BNI Pondok Indah, allegedly neglected to
verify the validity of the credit proposals.

Alfonsius Weheb, an appraisal officer, was detained for
failing to check the validity of the collateral offered by
creditors identified as Hendra and Budianto.

The police have also named Hendra and Budianto, who went
missing before BNI reported the case to the police in July 2003,
as suspects in the case.

The police accused the five of collaborating with the other
two, who submitted a proposal for retail credit between 2002 and
2003.

The police revealed that Hendra and Budianto proposed loans to
the bank using documents of 11 fictitious companies including
cell phone retailers, auto retailers, electronics retailers and a
property company.

For collateral, the suspects used 10 certificates of building
and land ownership that belonged to people who owed money to
Hendra and Budianto.

BNI later found out that the loans had been channeled to
fictitious companies after approving 10 loans.

Police have questioned 50 people since July 2003 including 10
people who owed Hendra money and 22 notaries who issued the
certificates of the fictitious companies. They also questioned 18
BNI officials.

The police have also asked help from an auditor of the
Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP), an expert witness of Bank
Indonesia and a legal expert from the University of Indonesia to
make the case.