Former Bapindo bosses break ranks in court

Former Bapindo bosses break ranks in court

JAKARTA (JP): Two former Bapindo directors, who had been
giving uniform answers in their testimony over the loan fraud at
the government bank, broke ranks in court for the first time
yesterday.

Subekti Ismaun and Bambang Kuntjoro, both suspects in the
scandal, gave conflicting testimony in the trial of Maman
Suparman, former deputy manager of Bapindo's Jakarta branch.

Subekti insisted that he knew nothing until recently about the
problems with the huge loans to businessmen Eddy Tansil even
though he was the bank's president.

He said he was on holiday during a crucial board of directors
meeting on June 2 1992 when the problems with Tansil's loans were
raised for the first time. Two weeks later, the issue was not
discussed when he did attend a directors meeting.

Bambang, a member of the board of directors, however told the
hearing yesterday that Subekti must have known about Tansil's
loans because it was on the agenda at the June 16 meeting.

The Bapindo trials have turned into a game where Maman,
executives of the Bapindo head office, and the directors
simultaneously disclaim all responsibility and try to incriminate
one another.

Maman has insisted that he kept the head office informed on
all of Tansil's transactions, which in turn stressed that all
this information was given to the board.

The directors said they were only aware of the problems in
June, three years after the first loan was extended.

Tansil, owner of the Golden Key Group, has been accused of
siphoning off $448 million of Bapindo funds with the help of bank
insiders, including Maman. Subekti, Bambang and two other former
Bapindo directors are still under investigation by the Attorney
General's office, which intends to bring them to trial later this
month.

Subekti said he was not fully aware of the extent of the
problems with Tansil's loan because no one briefed him on the
details when he returned from his vacation in mid-June 1992.

He admitted that he attended the meeting on June 16, but said
that he felt that it was a routine matter.

He said that as president director he was not supposed to
check into details and technical matters because such tasks had
been delegated to other directors.

The other directors had earlier said that the June 16 meeting
endorsed the decision taken two weeks earlier to allow Tansil to
cash in on the remaining loans at Bapindo.

The three directors said the decision was taken at the orders
of then finance minister J.B. Sumarlin, who insisted they keep
giving money to Tansil even though the bank recommended cutting
their losses when Tansil's total debt was still $208 million.

Bambang said Subekti was given a copy of the report on
Tansil's loans during the June 16 meeting.

The hearing was adjourned until Thursday when Tansil will take
the witness stand. (05)