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.