Dutch government help sought over Indover scam

Dutch government help sought over Indover scam

JAKARTA (JP): Attorney General Marzuki Darusman said his
office would need to formally request that the Netherlands
government assist it in investigating a corruption case involving
a Bank Indonesia (BI) subsidiary in Amsterdam, NV Indover.

Marzuki said on Sunday that such a request was mandatory to
obtain access to account numbers belonging to a number of
businessmen who had received loans from Indover Bank between 1993
and 1998.

"During our visit there, we opened the way for cooperation
with the Netherlands government in order to enable us to get to a
number of accounts in Indover Bank as BI does not have the files.

"I don't know how come our central bank doesn't have access to
Bank Indover...we have to make an official request to the
counterpart to open the accounts," he told The Jakarta Post in a
telephone interview on Sunday afternoon.

Marzuki has just returned from a trip to the Netherlands, in
which his investigation team also investigated the legal
possibilities for questioning 10 foreigners, who were once
Indover Bank executives, as witnesses.

The state has reportedly suffered US$1 billion in losses due
to the misuse of loans extended through Indover Bank and its Hong
Kong affiliate Indover Asia Ltd.

Prosecutors named former president director of Indover Bank,
Sidharta S.P. Suryadi and former managing director of Indover
Asia Permadi Gandapraja as suspects. The two have already been
banned from leaving Indonesia.

They have been accused of violating the bank's prudential
principals by disbursing loans, which came from BI's foreign
exchange reserves, without properly examining the borrowers'
ability to repay.

Prosecutors also found intervention on the part of executives
of BI, which at the time was chaired by governor Soedradjad
Djiwandono.

Starting their investigation in August, the prosecutors
unearthed an improper loan disbursement of $1.5 million to PT
United Coconut Indonesia, a company belonging to the wife of
former head of the Supreme Advisory Council A.A. Baramuli.

A source close to the investigation revealed that Baramuli
also availed of loans which he then extended to several
fictitious companies.

Marzuki refused to confirm the report, saying that his office
"has as yet nothing to say about the findings in Amsterdam".
(bby)