Corruptors guilty, get slap on wrist

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Two former executives from the now-defunct Bank Ficorinvest were found guilty by the South Jakarta District Court on Wednesday for misappropriating the Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support Fund (BLBI).

Supari Dhirdjoprawiro, the former president director of the bank, and S. Soemeri, the bank's director, were found guilty of misusing Rp 319 billion (about US$37.1 million) of bank bail out funds in 1998.

They were given 1.5 years in jail, and not ordered to repay any of the money or fined in any way, despite the prosecution's demand of a 4-year sentence.

According to the verdict, Supari, 65, and Soemeri, 59, were responsible for the illegal BLBI disbursement by Bank Ficorinvest between January and March in 1998.

"The defendants abused their authority by allowing the disbursement of the BLBI funds to speculate on foreign exchange and to lend to unauthorized private clients," Presiding Judge Zoeber Djayadi told the hearing.

Both the defendants said that they would appeal the verdict while prosecutor Cecep Sunarto, who sought four years imprisonment for them, said that he would consider whether to appeal the verdict or not.

The prosecution of a series of BLBI violation cases have been considered mostly a sham as the authorities have failed to imprison or get the money returned from the key perpetrators.

Most of those so far convicted, including Setiawan Harjono of the now-defunct Bank Aspac, Bank Umum Servitia's David Nusa Wijaya and Bank Modern's Samadikun Hartono, are on the lam.

Neither the Attorney General's Office or the police have taken the concrete measures needed to arrest them.

The central bank disbursed Rp 144.5 trillion in liquidity support to 48 commercial banks in a bid to overcome possible bankruptcy during the economic crisis in 1998 and 1999.

However, some 95 percent of that was misused for personal gain by the bank owners and their cronies, according to the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK).