Five suspects named in BI case

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.