Five suspects named in BI case

P.C. Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Police have named five suspects in the Account 520 case, the first names in a Rp 20.9 trillion scandal involving Bank Indonesia (BI) and the now-defunct Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA).

Brig. Gen. Sugiri, a senior officer at the corruption and white collar crime division of the National Police, said Friday the suspects were two former senior officials of BI Surabaya's branch and three former senior supervisors of Bank Perkreditan Rakyat (BPR) in Surabaya, East Java.

Sugiri said the suspects were believed to be responsible for disbursing funds totaling Rp 26 billion from the 502 account without adhering to proper procedures.

He declined to reveal the names of the five suspects, saying only that they were a former BI Surabaya head, a former BI executive supervisor for BPR in Surabaya, and three former managers of BPR Cipta Artha Loka.

Sugiri said East Java police had confiscated 26 documents related to the transactions.

None of the suspects had been detained because they were cooperative and were said to have no intention to avoid investigations.

The National Police are investigating alleged misuse of some Rp 20.9 trillion of Account 502 funds, an account created to help restructure ailing banks at the height of the economic crisis in 1999, by BI and the IBRA.

According to Sugiri, police are still studying the possible involvement of IBRA officials in the fund disbursement.

Account 502, in which some Rp 53.77 trillion was deposited, was opened in 1999 under the name of the then Minister of Finance, Bambang Subianto, who later reportedly gave BI and IBRA the authority to use it.

An audit by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), issued in the middle of 2003, gave rise to allegations of the misuse of Account 502 funds by BI and the IBRA.