Eight years asked for corruptor

Eight years asked for corruptor

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

State prosecutors recommended on Monday the South Jakarta
District Court sentence a former president director of state-
owned company PT Bahana Pembinaan Usaha Indonesia (PT BPUI) to
eight years in prison for causing the state to suffer losses
amounting to US$240.9 million.

Chief prosecutor Boediman Rahardjo also demanded that the
court order the defendant, 42-year-old Sudjiono Timan, to repay
Rp 1 trillion in compensation to the state and to serve the
sentence directly.

Timan is accused of violating the Anticorruption Law, which
carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment.

PT BPUI is a company under the central bank responsible for
channeling funds to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

"The defendant had committed a crime that had caused a huge
financial loss for the state," said Boediman.

However, he cited several mitigating factors, including that
Timan had developed state-owned Bahana Securities and Bahana Arta
Ventura.

Judge Putra Jadnya adjourned the hearing until Sept. 30 to
hear the lawyer's defense. Usually a criminal court adjourns a
hearing for two weeks, but Judge Putra Jadnya said that the
judges would join a tennis competition in Surabaya so they would
not be able to hold the hearing in two weeks.

During the defendant's term as president director from 1994 to
2001, PT BPUI had disbursed the money to several companies who
were not qualified to receive the funds.

They included Kredit Asia Finance Limited and Festival Company
Inc., which are owned by his close friends, business tycoon
Hashim Djojohadikusumo and Agus Anwar respectively, who also owns
the now-defunct Bank Pelita, as well as tycoon Prajogo Pangestu.

Timan had also approved the disbursement of Rp 263 billion in
PT BPUI's investment funds (RDI) to both companies and Virgin
Island-based PT Penta Investment Limited, an apparently
fictitious company jointly established by Timan and Prajogo.

The Attorney General's Office has named Prajogo, Agus, and
several PT BPUI directors as well as former minister of finance
Ali Wardhana, who served as president commissioner of the BPUI
board of commissioners between 1994 and 2001, as suspects of the
same case.

However, it is not clear whether or not they would appear in
court as defendants.