Ex-bankers tried in multitrillion rupiah graft case
JAKARTA (JP): The Central Jakarta District Court began the trial against two former top officials of the now-defunct Bank Umum Nasional for allegedly misusing money from Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support (BLBI) funds.
Prosecutor Andi Rachman Asbar told the court that Leonard Tanubrata, 52, a former president of BUN, and Kaharuddin Ongko, 64, a former deputy commissioner of the bank, had misappropriated the liquidity support from Bank Indonesia causing losses to the state of over Rp 1.7 trillion (about US$1.5 billion) and over US$435 million.
He said that the defendants violated Article 1 paragraph 1a of Anticorruption Law No. 3/1971, which carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment. The defendants were also charged with violating Article 49 of Law No. 10/1998 on banking. Violation of the law carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
"The defendants, along with Mohammad Hasan, the then chief commissioner of the bank, allegedly siphoned off funds from November 1997 to April 1998 to enrich themselves and their company groups at the expense of the state," he told the court.
Mohammad "Bob" Hasan, a timber tycoon, is now behind bars in the Nusakambangan Island off Central Java after he was sentenced to two years in jail early this year for manipulating US$75 million in forestry funds.
Andi said that Bank Indonesia gave over Rp 6.7 trillion in BLBI funds to BUN to be used to settle the bank's liquidity problems.
However, the defendants manipulated the funds for their own purposes even though Bank Indonesia had warned the bank three times in January 1998.
The judge adjourned the trial for a week.
After the monetary crisis hit the country in August 1997, Bank Indonesia assisted troubled banks by providing liquidity support funds a month later.
It was alleged that as many as 48 banks that received the funds had manipulated 95 percent out of the Rp 144.5 trillion funds for their own interests. However, only a few of the cases have gone to court.
Modern
On Monday, a former president of PT Bank Modern, Samadikun Hartono, went on trial at the Central Jakarta District Court on charges of misappropriating over Rp 169 billion in BLBI funds.
According to the indictment, Samadikun failed to manage Bank Modern well, since he and his family were involved in the bank's management, which later brought the bank into financial problems.
Separately, the court also tried former officials of Bank Harapan Sentosa (BHS) Hendra Rahardja, Eko Edi Putranto and Sherny Konjongian, without the presence of the defendants, who are still at large.
The three were believed to have misused Rp 2.659 trillion.
In the first liquidity support manipulation case, Hendrawan Haryono, the former deputy director of Bank Aspac, was acquitted from corruption charges in June. He was sentenced to one year in jail and was ordered to pay a Rp 500 million fine or serve another three months imprisonment for violating banking laws.(04)