BRI fraud suspects surrender

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Two of the leading suspects in the Rp 294 billion (US$34.5) Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) loan scandal surrendered to the Attorney General's Office on Monday night.

However, Bank Indonesia, the central bank, is still dragging its heels in providing assistance to investigators, including providing the names of holders of frozen accounts.

Office spokesman Kemas Yahya Rachman said Tuesday that Yudi Kartolo and Hartono, owners of a company used to allegedly channel money from BRI, were being held at Salemba prison in Jakarta.

"With their arrests, we hope that we can quickly solve the case without wasting much more time."

Kemas would not comment on results of the initial questioning, stressing the process was still underway.

Also in custody are Jakarta's BRI Senen branch head Deden Gumilar, Bogor's BRI Surya Kencana branch head Asep Tarwan and Jakarta's Tanah Abang branch head Agus Riyanto.

The office has questioned 20 witnesses and frozen 29 accounts into which the money was allegedly channeled. The combined balance of the accounts is Rp 100 billion.

"We are still waiting for Bank Indonesia's approval to examine the (29) accounts. We hope the approval will be granted as soon as possible. We want to know the names of the account holders," Kemas said.

Both Yudi and Hartono are the owners of PT Delta Makmur Experindo, the company that was allegedly used as a vehicle to take money from the three BRI branches.

Yudi is reported to be an old hand in orchestrating banking fraud, because of his alleged involvement in the Rp 1.1 trillion Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) fraud in 2001.

The BRI case is the second major fraud cases reported in the last three months, following the revelation of a Rp 1.7 trillion lending scam at BNI in October.

Many are worried the scandals are just the beginning of a series of banking fraud cases in Indonesia. President Megawati Soekarnoputri urged law enforces on Monday to treat the cases seriously.