Ex-Bapindo boss says he fully trusted Sudomo
JAKARTA (JP): Former Bapindo president Subekti Ismaun on Saturday provided more damaging testimony on the role of former cabinet minister Sudomo in the Bapindo scandal, saying that he approved huge loans to a businessman in 1989 solely on the word of the powerful politician.
Subekti told a court hearing that he did not bother to check the credentials of businessman Eddy Tansil when he came to apply for the loans with a reference letter from Sudomo, at the time coordinating minister for political affairs and security.
"Shouldn't I trust the word of Sudomo, a cabinet minister?" Subekti asked back when the judge asked him why he bypassed normal risk assessment procedures in approving the Tansil loans. His response drew a boisterous applause from the audience in the court gallery.
The former Bapindo president was testifying in the trial of Tansil, owner of the Golden Key Group, who stands accused of defrauding Bapindo out of US$448 million in collaboration with officials at the government bank.
Subekti is one of four former Bapindo directors who are under investigation in connection with the scandal which has cost the technically bankrupt bank Rp 1.3 trillion ($620 million). Attorney General Singgih said all four will be tried this month.
The other three former directors, in their testimony last Tuesday, also pointed to pressure from Sudomo as the reason for their decision to approve the loans.
Sudomo, now chairman of the Supreme Advisory Council, has acknowledged writing reference letters to Bapindo in support of Tansil's application for loans, but insists that this was a normal practice and that the bank should have checked the creditworthiness of the client before extending the loans.
Subekti recalled that Tansil came to his office for the first time in 1989, carrying a letter of reference from Sudomo, written on the minister's official stationary.
Sudomo's letter stated that Tansil had a successful venture in China and that he was now planning to invest in Indonesia. It also said that Tansil was a bona fide businessman and of high integrity, according to Subekti.
Tansil also brought a letter giving a general outline of his plan to build an integrated petrochemical project in Cilegon, West Java, he said.
Subekti said he and Sudomo also visited a project under PT Materindo Supra Metal Work, a subsidiary of Golden Key Group, at Tansil's invitation.
He stressed that he believed at the time that the projects "had potential," another reason why the loans were approved and that the projects themselves were treated as collateral.
Subekti said things started to go wrong when Bapindo's Jakarta branch, which administered the details of Tansil's loan transactions, ignored a number of procedures.
War of words
The hearing turned into a war of words between the chief prosecutor Lukman Bachmid and Tansil's lawyer Gani Djemat, who proposed that the court take a look at two of Tansil's industrial projects, estimated to be worth Rp 600 billion, and offered them as settlements of his clients debts.
Lukman, in an emotional tone, rejected the offer, pointing out that these projects also carry debts with other government banks, and that "it is a lie to offer them as a settlement."
It was Gani's turn to take offense, asking presiding judge Soetrisno to reprimand Lukman for suggesting that he was a liar.
The judge then ordered Lukman to moderate his words.
There were four other witnesses testifying at Saturday's hearing, all staff of the Golden Key Group or its subsidiaries.
Sarjono, a courier who has worked in Tansil's family business for 22 years, said he was surprised to find out that he had been registered by Tansil as director of the Golden Key subsidiary PT Cilegon Multi Wahana Servis in October 1983.
Benny Sutedja, a director in Golden Key, said that Tansil used his wife's name in the acquisition of a plot of land in Kalideres, West Jakarta.
Samantha Widjaya, an import officer in an affiliate of Golden Key Group, said that Tansil ordered her several times to obtain the signature of group president Kusno A. Zein on blank forms. (05)