Corrupt executive given 16-year sentence
JAKARTA (JP): Central Jakarta District Court sentenced an executive of a private company on Thursday to 16 years in jail for failing to pay state-owned telecommunications company PT Telkom for telephone cards worth Rp 22 billion (US$3 million).
Presiding judge Pangeran Siregar also fined the defendant, Julinir Syam, 49, who is the president of telephone card distributor PT Mutrindu Asri Sentosa, Rp 25 million and ordered him to return Rp 17 billion in substitution funds to PT Telkom.
"The defendant admitted all his wrongdoings, but he was still tight-lipped about the people with whom he shared the embezzled money," Siregar said.
He said that in committing the crime the defendant was helped by an executive of Telkom's Central Jakarta branch office, identified as Hermawani, and another man, identified as Anas Bajeber.
Hermawani is to be tried soon but Anas is still at large.
Siregar said Julinir signed an agreement with PT Telkom on the purchase of telephone cards worth Rp 16 billion in April last year.
"Under the agreement, PT Mutrindu had the right to sell the telephone cards in Central Jakarta," he said.
The defendant gave a downpayment of Rp 1 billion and a bank guarantee worth Rp 15 billion from Bank Rakyat Indonesia, he said.
Julinir purchased more telephone cards, worth Rp 9 billion, and gave a downpayment of Rp 2 billion and a bank guarantee from the same bank of Rp 50 billion in July last year he said.
According to Siregar, all the telephone cards were sold to the public, but Julinir never paid Telkom the arrears, that amounted to Rp 22 billion.
He said the bank guarantees mentioned by the defendant were found to be fake and there were no funds in them when they were checked at the bank.
He said Julinir admitted to having used part of the money to buy 10 cars, including a Mercedes sedan, a BMW sedan, two Cherokee jeeps, a Jaguar sedan, a Nissan Patrol jeep and a Land Cruiser jeep.
The defendant also used the money to rent a floor in the Sudirman Tower's on Jl. Sudirman, South Jakarta, for his office.
Some of the rest of the money was invested by the defendant in a company in Singapore,.
The money was also used to fund Julinir's travel to Hong Kong last year, he said.
Siregar said the defendant, who was detained in July this year, was found guilty of violating Article 1 of Law No. 3/71 on corruption.
He said the court had auctioned the Mercedes and BMW sedans and two Cherokee jeeps in September but only raised Rp 299 million. The money will be returned to PT Telkom.
He said the Jaguar, Nissan Patrol and Land Cruisers would be returned to leasing company PT Sinar Mas Multi Finance because the cars have not yet been fully paid for.
Prosecutor Andrizal said PT Telkom could file a new lawsuit against the defendant to pay the substitution funds of Rp 17 billion if the defendant refused to abide by the court's verdict.
"Moreover, his and his heirs' property could also be confiscated," Andrizal said.
He had earlier asked the court to sentence the defendant to 17 years in jail.
Both the defendant and the prosecutor were still considering whether to appeal the judge's decision. (jun)