Immigration on alert for bank owners

Immigration on alert for bank owners

JAKARTA (JP): Immigration check points across the country have
been put on alert and ordered to "delay" the departure of the
owners of the 16 liquidated banks if they try to leave the
country.

Mursanuddin A. Ghani, the head of public affairs at the
director general of immigration's office, said the bank owners
were not officially banned or blacklisted from traveling abroad
but precautions were being taken.

"The (official) wording is not 'banned' because there has
still been no official request from the Ministry of Finance or
the Attorney General's office," he said yesterday.

"But we've instructed all 83 immigration check points
throughout the country to postpone the departure of the owners of
the 16 banks," he said as quoted by Antara.

"We don't want to take any risks or be blamed should any of
them try to escape abroad," he said, adding there was no list of
names prohibited from traveling abroad as there was no official
order.

Mursanuddin said his office was merely being careful and
inserting the names of known bank owners into the immigration
computer. He said the names had been obtained from newspaper
reports.

"If they are found at the airport or trying to go abroad we'll
ask them to wait a bit. We'll check with the Ministry of Finance
and Attorney General whether they are prohibited or not," he
said.

According to immigration files, as of yesterday afternoon,
none of the known owners of liquidated banks had tried to leave
the country. (mds)