Legislator's wife questioned over QSAR scam

Legislator's wife questioned over QSAR scam

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung, West Java

Following hot on the heels of House of Representatives Speaker
Akbar Tandjung's conviction for graft, the wife of House deputy
speaker Tosari Wijaya is being questioned about her role in the
massive financial scandal involving PT Qurnia Subur Alam Raya
(QSAR).

West Java police chief Insp. Gen. Sudirman Ail said Friday
Tosari's wife Matsusoh was allegedly in charge of a Purbolinggo,
East Java-based subsidiary of the now bankrupt profit-sharing
agribusiness company.

"(QSAR president) Ramli told police investigators that QSAR
channeled some Rp 750 million to a subsidiary in Purbolinggo in
which Ibu Matsusoh was a director," Sudirman said in Bandung on
Friday.

Ramli, currently in police detention in Sukabumi, West Java,
had been declared the main suspect in the financial scandal
involving the alleged misuse of Rp 500 billion raised from 6,800
private investors.

Tosari, a member of the United Development Party (PPP), said
earlier that he had invested an unspecified amount of money in
QSAR but he never mentioned his wife's or his involvement in the
venture.

He also said that he had invested Rp 5 billion belonging to
PPP and around Rp 1.5 billion belonging to cooperatives
associated with the Muslim-based political party.

Chief of the police team investigating the alleged scam, Adj.
Sr. Com. Napitupulu, said that police planned to question
Matsusoh again on Saturday.

Napitupulu refused to give details pending further
investigation.

Sudirman said that police had found no hint yet of PPP's
alleged investment of Rp 5 billion.

"Maybe yes (PPP invested Rp 5 billion), but the issue is still
being discussed within PPP itself," said Sudirman, adding that
QSAR's accounting system was a complete mess.

"Until now, we have found no evidence, only hearsay," he said.

He also stressed that police authorities would not investigate
PPP's investment or Vice President Hamzah Haz's involvement in
the scandal merely on hearsay.

Citing a report submitted by a police audit team, Sudirman
said more 6,000 people had invested a total of Rp 486 billion in
QSAR.

More than 4,200 investors have been identified.

According to Sudirman, the biggest difficulty faced by police
was QSAR's appalling accounting system.

"We cannot know for sure how many investors put their money in
the company. What is important now is that we record anyone who
complains," he said.

Napitupulu said data on affiliated companies, assets, and
financial reports had been destroyed by QSAR before the scandal
surfaced.

"That is why the recapitalization of asset inventory and
investors data is difficult to trace," he said.

Police have already confiscated 200 hectares of land and 340
car units.

Sudirman said assets confiscated by police investigators would
be returned to investors once the investigation was completed.

He urged investors who confiscated QSAR's assets to return
them to the police to smooth the investigation process.

"If investors insist they will not return assets, we will take
them by force," he stressed.

People's Consultative Assembly chairman Amien Rais suggested
earlier this week that police stop efforts to bring the company's
executives to court although he admitted that Ramli had misused
public funds.