Four Bank DKI employees named as graft suspects

JAKARTA (JP): Four officials of city-owned Bank DKI have been named suspects in corruption cases involving Rp 3.5 billion, head of the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office said.

Lukman Bachmid recently said the cases, now being studied by his office, involved the misuse of authority.

"We are working hard on these corruption cases... the four Bank DKI employees are officially suspects," Lukman told reporters at his office last week.

The four are M. Lutfi, former head of the bank's Gunung Sahari branch, Soediharto and Ramli Hutajulu, respectively head and deputy head of the Matraman branch, and Eko Soegiharto, a teller at the Kebayoran Baru branch.

Lukman said Lutfi had disbursed loans worth Rp 1.5 billion, well beyond the limit set by the bank.

"The bank sets limits for how much money can be disbursed ... I cannot reveal how much," Lukman said.

Soediharto and Ramli also exceeded their authority when disbursing loans worth Rp 1.6 billion to minivan owners, he said.

Eko was a suspect for allegedly failing to deposit Rp 400 million of customers' money into their accounts, he said.

Lutfi has been put in the Salemba detention center for fear that he might "run away or get people to destroy evidence against him", Lukman said. He did not disclose the fate of the other three suspects.

The prosecutor's office earlier named Bank DKI president Maman Soelasman and director of general affairs Djunaedi Albaghdady suspects in a separate corruption investigation involving Rp 2 billion.

Lukman said there was a likelihood of the case being heard in court, but refused to give a target date.

Bank DKI has booked losses of hundreds of millions of rupiah, reportedly due to embezzlement by its top executives. (ylt)