Govt gives up on corruptor's wealth

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Months of hunting for assets of the late Hendra Rahardja, former Indonesian banker and business magnate convicted of corruption, have ended in disappointment as virtually all of his wealth has been sold, a Cabinet minister has said.

Quoting reports from the Australian government, Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra said on Saturday that almost all of Hendra's assets in Australia had been sold before the Australian government executed a verdict by an Indonesian court in Hendra's graft case.

"There is still a small number of assets but their value is far below our expectations. There have been allegations that his assets were transferred to other countries," Yusril said.

Yusril did not reveal the value of Hendra's leftover assets in Australia that had been acquired by the government.

The government, according to Yusril, was currently trying to trace Hendra's assets outside Australia. However, he complained about difficulties in tracing the assets.

"The attempt to extradite him took a very long time. People can move their ill-gotten wealth quickly if they hear the government is after it," Yusril said.

The government has been pursuing Hendra's assets in a bid to pay his debts to the country since January last year, following Hendra's death in Australia.

It had set up a liquidation team to sort out his assets after the Australian government offered Jakarta some US$120 million of Hendra's assets in that country.

Efforts to bring Hendra back to the country since March 2002 to serve his life imprisonment were part of the government's attempt to prosecute corruptors implicated in Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance (BLBI) fund violations.

However, the attempts failed due to complicated extradition proceedings in Australia.

Hendra, who was arrested by the Australian government for an immigration offense in 1999, subsequently died of kidney cancer early in January 2003.

The tycoon, who fled the country in 1997, was sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia for corruption involving Rp 1.95 trillion (US$216.7 million) of taxpayers' money distributed to two of his banks under the BLBI program during the economic crisis in the late 1990s.

Hendra, along with his son, was charged with corruption after the collapse of his two banks, Bank Harapan Sentosa and Bank Guna International, in 1997, even though the state had provided emergency funds to bail out failing banks.

The whereabouts of Eko Edi Putranto, Hendra' son, are currently unknown. He was sentenced to 20 years in jail following an in absentia trial in the same case.

Hendra was one of several wealthy bankers who fled the country to avoid prosecution after they refused to repay to the state misused BLBI funds.

His brother Edi Tansil has remained at large since he fled Cipinang prison in 1996 while he was in the second year of a 20- year jail term after being convicted of corruption charges amounting to Rp 1.3 trillion that nearly brought the state-owned Bank Pembangunan Indonesia to bankruptcy.