Ex-Bapindo boss makes last gasp not-guilty plea

JAKARTA (JP): Towil Heryoto, the former president of Bank Pembangunan Indonesia (Bapindo), made an eleventh hour appeal to the court to acquit him of corruption charges, stressing that he was simply a victim of other people's greed.

Earlier, government prosecutors demanded that the South Jakarta District Court sentence Towil to 14 years imprisonment for his alleged role in the Rp 1.3 trillion ($620 million) debacle that nearly bankrupted the government-owned bank.

Towil, reading his own closing argument for the defense, said on Thursday that the bank scandal, dated from 1989 until early this year, was beyond his control.

"The debacle at Bapindo occurred because Eddy Tansil exploited weaknesses in the bank's management and control systems," Towil told the court.

Eddy Tansil is the businessman at the center of the scandal. The Central Jakarta Court has already convicted and sentenced him to 17 years imprisonment and has ordered him to pay Rp 500 billion in restitution for siphoning off more than $480 million from Bapindo.

Towil said that Tansil, owner of the Golden Key Group of petrochemical companies, came to the bank in 1989 armed with a letter of reference from Sudomo, at the time the coordinating minister for political affairs and security.

In a surprise move, Towil also tried to pass the blame on to the other members of the bank who are being tried separately on similar charges. Previously, the four former Bapindo directors had presented a unified defense and tried to pass the blame on to their subordinates or Sudomo and J.B. Sumarlin, the finance minister until March 1993.

Towil pointed out that he was absent during a crucial board of directors' meeting in June 1992 during which the decision was made to continue lending to Tansil, although the directors were fully aware of the huge risk they were taking.

He stressed that he was in the United States at the time of the decision.

Blamed

He also blamed his staffers, particularly those from the credit evaluation division at Bapindo headquarters, for suggesting to the directors that Tansil's petrochemical projects were commercially viable.

Towil, who built his banking career at Bapindo, said that the last thing he would do is harm the bank. He also pointed out to the court that he was very much part of the bank's rapid expansion program in the late 1980s.

In addition to Towil, three other former Bapindo directors -- Subekti Ismaun, Sjahrizal and Bambang Kuntjoro -- are also being tried in connection with the scandal. They are accused of being negligent, individually or collectively, in having allowed the scandal to occur.

Towil's lawyers in a separate defense statement on Thursday also pointed out that much of the Bapindo debacle was caused by the behavior of the deputy manager of Bapindo's Jakarta branch, Maman Suparman.

Rudy Abraham Lontoh, who is heading the defense team, said his client was not involved in the conversion of the Bapindo credit terms that allowed Tansil to cash in on the loans instead of his foreign suppliers.

"It was Maman Suparman who converted the letters of credit," Rudy said, adding that the conversion was made without Towil's knowledge.

Maman has already been convicted for his part and is now serving a nine-year prison sentence. (imn)