How to make a billion bucks: A tragic satire

How to make a billion bucks: A tragic satire

Andrew I. Sriro
Lawyer and Member
California State Bar
Jakarta

I was recently introduced to a new business idea by a fellow
lawyer here in Jakarta. It looked almost too good to be true but
based on some recent high profile Indonesian court cases
describing a similar structure, the market potential seems
unlimited and I wanted to share it with you.

Here's the opportunity: Just go to the international financial
market and borrow a few hundred million or even a billion
dollars, or any other amount that seems beyond your wildest
dreams, put up substantial assets as guarantee for repayment, and
then (here's the beauty of it) -- just default.

When the creditors start to press for payment and threaten
foreclosure of the assets you pledged, just follow these two
simple steps:

First, tell the creditors that their threats are causing you
emotional distress. Never mind that you are a corporate entity,
you can feel pain and suffering just like a real person, everyone
knows that. And, no matter what manner your creditors use to ask
you to meet your obligations, tell them they are greedy and
impolite and they should be more civilized.

Second, sue the creditors and investors who provided funds for
your loan in the Indonesian court of your choice, request
annulment of the transaction and remember to tack on a claim for
a few hundred million dollars in tort damages for emotional
distress. Don't worry about legal theories. Just have your lawyer
write some mambo jambo and leave it to the defendants to figure
out what you are talking about. The courts will understand.

Also, don't forget to request an injunction prohibiting all
otherwise lawful enforcement actions by the creditors. And, while
you're at it, ask the court for attachment orders over all of
your own assets, yes those assets you promised in guarantee of
your obligations. That will stop any ambitious creditors from
selling your booty.

Sounds too good to be true? Still not convinced? You will be
when you realize that some of the leaders of the business
community have already bought into variations of this low risk
venture. So why not you!?!

Because of the great interest among businessmen in-the-know,
the fact that others are doing it only enhances your chances for
success. "Why?" you ask. Simple. Because the ground work has been
done for you by others.

And, that's not all. You don't even have to wait until the
final court decision to realize your gains. That's right. When
you file your lawsuit, you will effectively kill off all trade in
the market for your bonds or notes. Even if the injunction you
obtain from the court prohibiting trading is not enough, the risk
that an Indonesian court will rule in your favor and thereby
annul your debt obligations will send the trading price crashing
to the floor, and then you can buy back your notes at a heavy
discount. As you can plainly see, there are so many ways for you
to win!

And if you do wait for a final court decision (which could
take up to five years), you can run your business right into the
ground during the on-going legal battle, run up trade debts and
squeeze out all of the profits. Then, if you loose your case, so
what! Think about it. What's the worst thing that can happen?

Your creditors might try to file for bankruptcy leading to the
auction of all of your company's assets as a going concern. You
can threaten potential purchasers with more litigation to drive
down the price and then you can buy the assets back yourself at
auction at a deep discount with a clean balance sheet. You could
also have your company acknowledge the existence of some new
convenient and very sizable debts to enable you to control the
bankruptcy creditors committee. You just can't lose.

Unfortunately, the rest of the country does lose when you
gouge the heart and soul out of Indonesia. This is where the
satire stops and where your decision to join the latest business
craze gives you instant membership to the ranks of what I call
the "enemies of justice".

These enemies of justice trade away the chance for social
stability achievable only through steadfast adherence to property
rights, rationality and reason and leave corruption, blackmail
and extortion as the rule of order for current and future
generations.

It is not the first explorers and traders who sailed galleons
across the Seven Seas, or colonialists from the European
Renaissance or the fascists of World War II who are responsible
for today's tyranny. It is a few Indonesians themselves who
devour the soul of this great Nation. It is those few individuals
who fail through merit to successfully and efficiently operate
the natural resource and strategic industry grants they received
from the despotic rulers of previous feudal administrations.
Instead, these men resort to the injection of the poison of
unrestrained boundless greed where any means are deemed
appropriate to preserve and enhance their power.

They trade away, or rather grind down to dust, the true jewels
in the crown of the Indonesian Nation, the same jewels in the
crowns of every nation; namely, the drive to succeed based upon
merit through the development of the creativity and skills
necessary to enable scientific, artistic, social, political and
economic evolution, the belief that through fairness and peace,
prosperity will flourish.

The enemies of justice are metaphysical killers. If you join
them or if you are already one of them, you choose to meet
virtues and principals, not with the natural love which such
character extols, but rather with a hatred that grows
exponentially from the need to maintain an unnatural system of
incongruity of successive moral debasements, a system built on
the instability of power based upon might and fright.

The more you succeed in the pursuit of unjust gains, the more
complicated and precarious your survival becomes and the greater
too does your need to firmly root a cultural norm of greed and
dishonesty in Indonesian society to allow for the preservation of
your system of abuse. The enemies of justice know that should
they fail, their fate would be their greatest nightmare: They
would be devoured in a feeding frenzy by the monsters they
created.

The enemies of justice are our enemies and the enemies of
future generations. They would like us to believe that we are
powerless. They would like us to accept the fact that we must
live with injustice governed by those who are inhumane. But they
are wrong. Justice does matter and we must speak out to preserve
any chance of victory.

These people would like to assume the role of surrogate
teachers of our children. They would like to cripple our children
by eliminating references to good, by teaching them that there is
no rational social structure or rules based on values and
justice. They would like to teach our children that all
subjective desires are obtainable through dishonesty and
manipulation, that expediency is a principle of morality.

The situation is grave. The enemies of justice are fighting to
set the dominant values of this society. But we are clearly still
only in the negotiation stage. There are no set conclusions.
Victory is not yet theirs. It is not too late for Indonesia. The
courts have not yet finally decided these cases through the last
opportunities for appeal. Government officials still have the
option of steering the courts through supervision and independent
review, expedited appeals on matters of national importance and
the dismissal of judges with poor decisions records.

Now is the time for Capital Market Supervisory Agency
(BAPEPAM) to act, for the police to prosecute the frauds
arrogantly admitted in court documents by the enemies of justice,
for Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), the Coordinating
Minister of Economy, the Minister of Industry and Trade and the
Minister of Labor, the Minister of Education and the Minister of
Social Affairs to investigate and speak out on the real effects
of court cases brought to abuse creditors.

Now is the time for the political parties to prove their
commitments to reform by fighting for justice. They should
clearly recognize that foreigners are merely being targeted as a
proxy to strip ordinary Indonesian citizens of their most
fundamental right, the right to the just, clear, consistent and
equal application of laws to all members of society.

Talk of moral values has not become clichi. Hope and activism
are our greatest weapons. Doing nothing is exactly the reaction
our enemies expect from us. Let us not comply. Instead, we must
embrace and fight for the importance of ideas, truth, rationality
and reason.