Govt plans to reclaim BNI assets abroad

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta

After a fiasco lasting almost seven months, government agencies will soon begin a concerted effort to recover assets of Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) amounting to Rp 1.3 trillion (US125 billion), being laundered overseas.

The campaign will involve officials from BNI, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Attorney General's Office, the National Police and the Indonesian Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK).

BNI legal consultant Pradjoto said here on Saturday the high- ranking officers from these agencies would attend a meeting organized by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) this week.

"At the preliminary meeting, it was agreed that the KPK would invite officers from all the relevant government agencies to discuss strategies to be used in retrieving the money, especially that placed in accounts abroad," he told The Jakarta Post.

Such unified efforts followed the recent statement by BNI president director Sigit Pramono that around Rp 1.3 trillion had been embezzled from state-owned BNI and had not been returned, despite six months of legal moves to recover the money.

Citing the findings by a BNI investigation team, Pradjoto said that around 80 percent of the funds were kept in accounts abroad, including a total US$90 million in the United States, Singapore and several Arab countries.

He said BNI and the KPK agreed that the money could be reclaimed only through integrated efforts involving all relevant government agencies.

"I think the government can claim back the money as long as there is a court verdict that the money was obtained through corruption. No country wants to be accused of keeping ill-gotten money," said Pradjoto.

BNI asked the Supreme Court to issue a declaration that all the funds reaped from the scandal were ill-gotten gains, and should therefore be returned to Indonesia.

"I believe that the court will issue the ruling soon. We can then use the decision as a legal basis to reclaim the money abroad," Pradjoto said.

Explaining the strategies for the campaign's success, he said the foreign ministry would pursue diplomatic channels to trace the embezzled money, while the National Police would continue to use Interpol to identify and nab suspects.

The PPATK would use its own network based on the prevailing money laundering and mutual assistance agreement between member countries to track and retrieve the money, Pradjoto added.

KPK member Amien Sunaryadi confirmed the plan for this week's meeting to discuss the concerted efforts, saying his office would carry out its duty of supervising the BNI case to speed up the recovery process.

"As an agency with the authority to coordinate legal efforts, we shall try our best to help them return state money," he told the Post on Saturday.

Police have charged several businesspeople from the Gramarindo and Petindo Groups with obtaining funds from BNI in 2003 through deception, by using bogus letters of credit (L/Cs) from correspondent banks in Congo and Kenya to withdraw the money from the Kebayoran Baru branch of the country's second-largest bank.

The L/Cs turned out to be fake, however, causing the bank to suffer losses of Rp 1.3 trillion. At least 17 suspects from BNI, Gramarindo and Petindo were named suspects in the huge scam, seven of whom are currently standing trial in the South Jakarta District Court.

However, the key suspect, Maria Pauline Lumowa, has fled abroad.

Pradjoto said Indonesia had the experience of regaining state funds embezzled by businessman Hendra Rahardja through concerted efforts, including a diplomatic approach with Australia.

The Australian government later froze Hendra's accounts and returned his money to its Indonesian counterpart, he said.

Hendra, who died of kidney cancer last year, was sentenced to life imprisonment during a trial in Jakarta in absentia in March 2002 for graft involving Rp 1.95 trillion of taxpayers' money. It was channeled to two of his banks under the Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance program during the 1998 economic crisis.

The tycoon fled to Australia in 1997 to avoid paying his debts but was arrested in 1999 in Sydney at Indonesia's request.