Corruptors guilty, get slap on wrist
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).