Maman claims he took his cues from Bapindo top executives
Maman claims he took his cues from Bapindo top executives
JAKARTA (JP): The former deputy manager of Bapindo's branch in
Jakarta testified in court yesterday that he took his cues from
the head office in handling the loans for Eddy Tansil, who is
being tried for swindling US$448 million from the government
bank.
Maman Suparman acknowledged in his own trial at South Jakarta
District Court that while he bypassed a number of procedures in
allowing Tansil, the owner of the Golden Key Group, to cash in on
his loans, he assumed that he did so with the head office's
approval.
Maman admitted that he converted some of the terms of the
letters of credit issued to Tansil to allow the latter to
personally cash in on the loans.
Maman told the court he took the absence of any reprimand from
the head office to mean that his moves had their tacit approval.
He also recalled that the board of directors decided on June 2
to continue meeting their loan commitments to Tansil, which he
assumed meant that his actions had been correct.
Maman is being tried in connection with the Rp 1.3 trillion
($620 million) loan scandal at Bapindo. Government prosecutors
said he colluded with Tansil, owner of the Golden Key Group, to
help the latter siphon off some $448 million from the bank.
The prosecution accused Maman of accepting bribes from Tansil
and of being responsible for handing over $175 million to Tansil.
Maman expressed his surprise that the head office has
continually denied knowledge of his decision to waive standard
procedures in the transactions with Tansil since 1989, and that
they only found this out in April 1992.
Six people took the witness stand at yesterday's hearing:
three Bapindo executives -- Heru Santoso (deputy of general
affairs), Husein Sarkawi (deputy head of finance and banking
services), Pande Lubis (manager of Bapindo Jakarta), as well as
Maj. Gen. (ret.) Kusno Achsan Jein (president of Golden Key
Group), Dibyo Putranto (plant manager of Golden Key's PT
Materindo Supra Metal Work) and Didik Suwandi (president director
of PT Persero Rekayasa Industri).
Lack of collateral
A number of former Bapindo directors testified at Tansil's
trial on Tuesday that Maman failed to ensure that Tansil furnish
the necessary deposits and related documents as collateral in
support of his loan applications. They also said that Maman had
overstepped his authority.
Denny Kailimang, Maman's lawyer, yesterday relentlessly
questioned Heru Santoso on how the head office could have failed
to detect the alleged irregularities in Tansil's transactions for
so long.
Denny questioned whether the telex and facsimile messages that
the branch office sent to him were passed to the directors.
Heru failed to respond and was spared from further questioning
when Presiding Judge Soedjatman ordered Denny not to insist on
replies if the witness should refuse to answer.
Pande Lubis, who now manages the Jakarta branch, said that
Tansil has not yet paid back a single cent of the loans he
obtained from Bapindo.
Dibyo Putranto meanwhile confirmed that PT Materindo Supra
Metal Work never built the petrochemical project as suggested in
Tansil's loan application. (05)