Former bank staff on trial for swindling
Former bank staff on trial for swindling
JAKARTA (JP): Iwan Setiawan, 28, a former employee of state-
owned Export-Import (Exim) Bank, was arraigned at Central Jakarta
District Court yesterday for his alleged involvement in
embezzling Rp 2.6 billion (US$ 1.1 million).
Prosecutor T.S. Limbong told presiding judge A. Gatam Taridi
that Iwan, a former clearance department officer of the bank's
branch in Kebon Melati area, collaborated with Humala Hutabarat,
a notorious bank swindler and Mahdi Hadiwirya, a retired employee
of the bank. Hutabarat was shot to death by a police officer in
September last year for resisting arrest.
Prosecutor Limbong said in his written indictment, which was
read by his colleague, prosecutor Suharto, that in October, 1993,
Mahdi came to see Iwan in his office and then took him to a
discotheque in the Puncak highland area, West Java, to introduce
him to Hutabarat.
During the meeting, Mahdi asked Iwan to give him a copy of the
bank's August, 1993, itemized clearance report sent to Bank
Indonesia, the central bank. Mahdi then gave the copy to
Hutabarat, who at the time was the country's most wanted bank
swindler.
According to prosecutor Suharto, Iwan received Rp 30 million
for handing over a copy of the bank's clearance report.
Suharto said that Hutabarat then succeeded in using the copy
in a way to enable him to cheat the bank with a loss totaling Rp
2.6 billion.
The prosecutor did not explain to the judge how Hutabarat
actually swindled the bank.
"The crime was done in a very complicated way, so I think it
would be better if reporters wait until an expert witness
testifies," Suharto said.
Humala Hutabarat, 54, was believed to have embezzled at least
Rp 15.39 billion (US$7.04 million) in a series of well-planned
credit transfer frauds at seven state banks in North Sumatra and
Jakarta since 1981.
The amount was billed as the largest fraud of its type in
Indonesia.
According to police data, Hutabarat started his illegal
operation in 1981 at the branch office of state-owned Bank Rakyat
Indonesia in Siantar, his hometown in North Sumatra, making off
with Rp 845 million. A year later, he stole Rp 445 million from
the Medan branch of state-owned Regional Development Bank (BPD)
and was arrested.
He managed to escape, however, before being brought to trial.
In 1984, he committed fraud again in Medan, North Sumatra,
when he swindled Rp 1.4 billion from BPD.
It was believed that he then moved to Jakarta.
Police records show that his first target in Jakarta was BPD
in 1988, which reported a loss of Rp 1.7 billion caused by his
fraudulent activities. Along with four other men, Hutabarat was
arrested and jailed for one year.
Later, in 1992, Bank Dagang Negara Melawai, another state
bank, in South Jakarta reported a loss in its clearing account
totaling Rp 3.2 billion. This time, Hutabarat and his gang,
including an employee of the bank, opened a falsified account
and cleared funds through it. The group then transferred the
money to Hutabarat's bank account at Tat Lee Bank in Singapore.
The latest data on Hutabarat's operation was reported by two
Exim Bank branch offices here. The Kebon Melati office in Central
Jakarta reported a loss of Rp 2.6 billion and Tanjung Priok in
North Jakarta Rp 5.2 billion.
Shortly after Judge Taridi adjourned the trial, he ordered the
prosecutor to bring a lawyer to represent Iwan because the
Criminal Procedure Code rules that a person who is facing five
years imprisonment should be represented by a lawyer.
Prosecutor Suharto said that Iwan had violated Article 1 and
28 of 1971 Anti Corruption Law and Article 418 of the Criminal
Code. The article rules that a person faces 20 years imprisonment
if he is proven guilty of violating it. (mas)