Hundreds lured by phony voucher business

Hundreds lured by phony voucher business

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Hundreds of people, lured by the promise of fast money, have been
swindled out of money in a scam involving the sale of fake
vouchers.

City police said on Friday they had arrested M. Ucok
Panggabean, alias Pangondian Panggabean, a suspect in the Rp 62.9
billion (US$6.5 million) scam, which ran from December 2003 to
October 2004.

Ucok is being detained for further questioning. Police
confiscated from the suspect Rp 2.5 billion in cash, several bank
documents, four cars and boxes of vouchers, the head of the city
police's monetary and currency crime unit, Adj. Sr. Comr. Aris
Munandar, said.

"We have no idea how many victims there are as we are still
waiting for them to file reports, but we believe there may be
hundreds," he said.

Police are looking for Ucok's alleged accomplice, identified
as Iman Syahputra. In December 2003, Ucok and Iman allegedly
began selling people so-called vouchers, promising to pay
investors Rp 2,500 a week for every Rp 50,000 worth of vouchers
purchased.

The pair paid their early investors as promised, and more
people rushed to buy the vouchers.

"Many people, including members of a lawyer's family and the
niece of a director at city police headquarters, fell victim to
the pair," said city police spokesman Sr. Comr. Tjiptono.

But as the number of investors rose the two suspects began to
delay payments or offer investors more vouchers instead of cash.

The investors began to complain but no police report was
filed. In October last year, the syndicate abruptly stopped all
payments to investors and disappeared.

"We began to receive many reports after this," said Tjiptono.

He said police located Ucok in Cepete, South Jakarta.

"We have finished the case file and will submit it to the
prosecutor's office today (Friday)," Tjiptono said.

There have been similar cases in the past. In 2003, hundreds
of people lost billions of rupiah after investing in agricultural
company PT Qisar, which promised huge profits in a short time but
turned out to have no assets.

In another case, victims lost money in a phony lottery that
promised cars and cash. The victims were told to transfer between
Rp 5 million and Rp 50 million to a bank account to pay the taxes
on their prizes. Only after transferring the money and never
receiving their prize did the victims realize they had been
swindled.