JSX to summon BNI officials over lending scam
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) said on Tuesday it would seek an explanation from the management of publicly listed Bank BNI over reports of a huge lending scam, as investors continue to dump shares of the state bank.
JSX president Erry Firmansyah said on Tuesday the meeting with the BNI officials was expected to take place on Thursday.
"We have sent a letter to the BNI management for a hearing on Thursday because the graft allegations have badly impacted the company's shares on the bourse. Until now, the JSX has only received information on the case from the media," said Erry.
He said the JSX would ask the BNI to explain whether there would be financial losses resulting from the case, and whether it would impact the bank's overall financial performance.
Other questions that will be raised by the JSX are how the bank intends to resolve the case and recoup its money, the names of the suspects in the crime and the possible involvement of other listed companies, he said.
However, Erry said the JSX would not suspend trading in BNI shares because news on the case had already been widely circulated in the media.
Meanwhile, shares in BNI fell 4.8 percent to a six-month low of Rp 100 on Tuesday as investors continued to worry about the financial impact of the scandal. BNI share plunged by 19.2 percent on Monday.
Dealers said the case had worsened sentiment in the stock market, sending the Jakarta Stock composite index down 0.4 percent, or 2.190 points, to 626.862.
The BNI scandal revolves around the disbursement of some Rp 1.7 trillion worth of export credits to a number of companies that claimed to have obtained orders from Kenya and other African countries to export commodities.
The exporters also handed over letters of credit issued by banks in Kenya, which later turned out to be fictitious, reports said. The export activities also never materialized. According to reports, a BNI branch in South Jakarta channeled the export loans to these companies from the end of last year until July this year, without making any assessments.
The police said on Tuesday it had questioned nine witnesses over the case and expected to detain more suspects, in addition to the two suspects who have been detained since the middle of this month.
"As of today, the police have been quizzing nine witnesses besides the two suspects .... As the police interrogation continues, we expect more people (to be named suspects)," National Police deputy spokesman Brig. Gen. Soenarko DA said at National Police Headquarters.
Police have detained Edy Santoso, the head of the foreign customer service division of BNI, and Koesadiyuwono, the head of the BNI branch in Kebayoran Baru in South Jakarta.
Soenarko said police investigators would looking into the possibility that several laws and regulations had been broken with the issuance of the fictitious letters of credit.
Soenarko referred identified the laws and regulations as Article 372 of the Criminal Code on embezzlement, Law No. 10/1998 on banking, Law No. 20/2001 on anticorruption and Law No. 15/2002 on money laundering.
"By using several laws and regulations, the police investigators expect to catch more suspects in the dragnet," he said.
In addition, the police also extended a travel ban on six businessmen allegedly involved in the issuance of 41 fictitious letters of credit.
"The ban issued on Oct. 3 expired but we requested that the prosecutors extend (the ban) ... ," he said.
He did not identify the businessmen.