Ex-Scafindo manager tried for fraud

TANGERANG (JP): Tangerang District Court began on Tuesday the trial of a former PT Scafindo Mulia Perkasa's manager charged with misappropriating Rp 363 million through the firm's trading company.

Prosecutor Nellita Ariani stated in the indictment that defendant Sulastri Tjitradjaya, former operational manager of PT Scafindo, located in the Bumi Serpong Damai housing estate in Serpong, Tangerang, conducted the alleged crimes between December 2000 and January 2001.

The defendant faces a maximum punishment of five years imprisonment if found guilty.

According to the prosecutor, company director Santoso Djunaidi ordered the defendant to withdraw Rp 5 million from Bank International Indonesia in Serpong, but the defendant never submitted the money to the company.

Nellita said that on Feb. 19, 2000, the defendant also stole company assets including a Timor sedan, a Sansui television, two computers, a Nokia cellular phone, air conditioners and two PABX telephone units.

Nellita added that the defendant had also forged the company director's signature in a letter that authorized her to accept money from one of the company's clients, PT Bunamaint on Jl. Pluit Timur Block MM, Penjaringan subdistrict, North Jakarta on Jan. 19, 2001.

The company suffered Rp 363 million in losses as a result of the crimes, the prosecutor said.

Sulastri, 41, a resident in Perum Bukit Raflesia Block J-7 No. 2, Cibubur, Bogor, West Java, was arrested on April 7 following a complaint filed by PT Scafindo's director.

Defense lawyer Apong Herlina of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute is scheduled to present her response to the prosecutor's indictment on Aug. 7.(01)