Ex-Bapindo boss makes last gasp not-guilty plea

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)