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)