Customers demand their gold deposits

JAKARTA (JP): Hundreds of customers of private gold bullion trading company PT Pan Bullion Prima have demanded that the company return their gold deposits.

Denny Kailimang said on Wednesday his clients also demanded police speed up their investigation into the company's executives and finalize the matter.

"The customers hope that the police can help them find the best way to get their deposits back."

Denny accompanied dozens of Pan Bullion customers who went to the National Police Directorate of Detectives on Wednesday in a bid to have the case clarified and learn the fate of their deposits.

Police have closed down the company's three offices in South and Central Jakarta since Jan. 20 and detained its executive director, identified only as Jeffri, for allegedly breaching the company's business permit.

Several company cars and computers have been seized as evidence in the case.

The company has been accused of violating Article 46 of the 1992 Banking Law No. 7 by operating like a bank instead of a regular trading company.

The company is under investigation because it failed to refund at least 441 kilograms of gold bullion deposits belonging to 490 customers.

One of the customers, T. Suryanto, said he had no idea about the company's (alleged) illegal operation when he deposited three kilograms of gold bullion in 1995.

"It offered such a promising opportunity. It said that I could earn 4.5 percent of the total value of my deposit every year."

He started to complain when the company refused his application to withdraw his deposits.

"The marketing staff always gave me many reasons why they had stopped me from withdrawing my gold from the company."

The National Police director for economic crime, Col. I Made Mangku Pastika, said the company failed to refund its customers' deposits because it had allegedly used the deposits for futures trading activities in Singapore and lost. (cst)