Employee's name used to set up phantom firms

JAKARTA (JP): A witness told a court hearing yesterday that his employer had exploited his name to setting up companies.

"I was just a clerk. My superior asked me if he could use my name to establish more firms," Muri Hendriyadi, told the Central Jakarta district court.

The employee worked at a office in Roxy district which operated some 20 companies now being tried for selling false value added tax invoices.

Muri added he went to a notary to register the companies together with suspects Hartono and Baharuddin Umar.

Previous hearings confirmed that those companies, although registered at the Justice Ministry, did not really have any business other than selling bogus value added tax invoices.

Muri said that the new companies were established when the existing companies were not able to handle the high rates of turnover.

Four businessmen -- Baharuddin Umar, Tony Effendi, Hartono and Raden Ign. Suarisman -- are being tried for falsifying and selling value-added tax invoices, costing the government Rp 58.3 billion in lost tax revenues from 1993 to 1995. The four are being tried separately in two court hearings.

Bookkeeping for goods transaction was nonexistent, and records were kept only for the invoices themselves, witness Muri said.

Another witness, Fahrinur Ismail, who also an employee at the same office told the court that suspect Hartono acted as the operation manager as a syndicate.

"I worked directly under Hartono, typing out invoice orders he used to bring in before we got a fax machine," Fahrinur said.

Hartono had denied his involvement with the syndicate in previous hearings.

Fahrinur claimed that he only realized a year later that those invoices were bogus.

He added that several employees, including himself, wanted to resign on finding out, but that Hartono said he would be considered responsible.

Muri and Fahrinur told the court that they did not know where the invoices went.

Another witness, Edi Sutanto, a director of a construction company, also testified as witness. Edi said he purchased building material from a shop and paid value added tax for the transaction. He found out later that the tax invoices were signed by suspect Hartono.

The hearings was adjourned until Thursday. (14)