Golden Key Group boss Eddy Tansil rarely travels alone

By Endy M. Bayuni

JAKARTA (JP): When businessman Eddy Tansil fell from grace, he did not go down alone. Five government bankers have gone to prison, a judge has been under investigation, and two former powerful cabinet ministers were discredited. Now a number of prison officials are also under the gun.

All were alleged to be in "collusion" with him.

Tansil, the 42-year owner of the once prosperous Golden Key business group, walked out of the Cipinang correctional facility on Saturday night, barely two years into his 20 year jail term for corruption. He didn't return.

The relative ease with which he escaped from Jakarta's supposedly high-security prison illustrates the influence, perhaps even the charm, he always commanded in his dealings with government officials and banks during the heyday of his business empire.

Tansil was convicted in August 1994, for siphoning off Rp 1.3 trillion ($620 million) from Bank Pembangunan Indonesia (Bapindo). This sum came from a series of loans, plus interest, which he borrowed between 1989 and 1993 from the government-run bank to finance many of his ambitious industrial projects, including a huge petrochemical complex in Serang, West Java.

He borrowed without collateral. A "memo" and verbal support from two cabinet ministers at the time -- Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security Sudomo and Minister of Finance J.B. Sumarlin -- were all it took to secure the loans. Bapindo directors, much to their later chagrin, okayed the loans on the basis of the ministers' recommendations.

Tansil never admitted wrongdoing, with his lawyers pointing out that until the time of their client's arrest in February 1994, he had never defaulted on any of the loans. He did admit that he funneled some of the funds abroad, in contravention of the loan agreements, to finance his overseas business projects.

The Central Jakarta District Court found him guilty on corruption charges and sentenced him to 17 years in prison and ordered him to pay Rp 500 billion in restitution and Rp 30 million in court fines. The court also ordered the confiscation of much of his property -- including houses, office buildings, land, vehicles and bank deposits -- to pay the restitution. The Jakarta High Court then raised the jail term to 20 years upon appeal from the government. The Supreme Court upheld the decision.

As recent as last month, the Attorney General's Office said the government had not recovered a single rupiah of the Rp 500 billion restitution Eddy Tansil was ordered to pay. At the time of his escape on Saturday, the office was still preparing a civil lawsuit to recover the government's money.

The shear size of the loans Tansil pilfered from Bapindo would have ruined the state-run bank if the government had not revived it with an infusion of fresh capital.

Tansil did bring down four directors -- Towil Heryoto, Subekti Ismaun, Sjahrizal and Bambang Kuntjoro -- who are serving jail terms ranging from four to eight years for aiding him in his financial adventure. A Bapindo branch deputy manager, Maman Suparman, was also sentenced to nine years imprisonment for helping Tansil cash in on the loans. Maman died last November while serving his term.

Tansil nearly brought down Sudomo and Sumarlin, both long time aides of President Soeharto. Both were already out of the cabinet when the Bapindo scandal was disclosed.

Sudomo and Sumarlin were questioned by the Attorney General over allegations of collusion, and were both cleared of any wrongdoing. The two admitted to recommending Tansil as a trustworthy businessman, but said the Bapindo directors should have assessed his creditworthiness before extending the loans.

Sudomo, now chairman of the Supreme Advisory Council, and Sumarlin, chairman of the Supreme Audit Agency, survived the scandal politically, although there is no doubt that both of their public images were seriously dented.

Tansil managed to create at least two controversies while serving his time, even before his escape last weekend.

The first surfaced in February when Judge Soetrisno, who heard his case in 1994, was accused by an adversary in a land dispute in Yogyakarta of taking bribes from Tansil.

According to court records in Yogyakarta, the adversary, a business partner of Soetrisno, claimed he knew that the judge, then the head of the Central Jakarta District Court, was paid Rp 200 million by Tansil to ensure that he, and not other judges, tried the case.

As head of the court, he had the prerogative to select which cases to try.

Many legal experts and politicians were surprised at the leniency of the sentence Soetrisno handed down in August 1994.

The bribe allegation forced the Ministry of Justice to launch an investigation against Soetrisno, who in February was a sitting judge on the High Court in Medan, North Sumatra. Nothing has been heard of the investigation since then.

The second controversy occurred on April 16, when Minister of Justice Oetojo Oesman decided to make a snap nighttime inspection of Cipinang penitentiary. He found that Tansil was accorded special privileges from prison guards, such as the luxury of a color television and a fan in his cell.

The minister ordered that these privileges be removed and security at the jail be tightened.

The warden apparently didn't carry out the minister's order.

In the diminishing wake of Tansil's escape, Cipinang chief warden Mintardjo has been suspended from his job, and he along with more than 20 of his staff are under investigation.