Ministry, police to join in Manulife scandal probe
Ministry, police to join in Manulife scandal probe
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights has been coordinating
with the National Police Headquarters to investigate assets
belonging to the three commercial court judges who declared PT
Asuransi Jiwa Manulife Indonesia (AJMI) -- a subsidiary of
Canadian insurance giant Manulife Financial -- bankrupt.
The ministry's spokesman, R.A. Tjapah, said on Friday that
their investigating team was cooperating with the police because
the team itself had not been granted access to bank accounts of
individuals or groups.
He said Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza
Mahendra met with National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar a few
days ago to discuss the investigation.
Indonesian Banking Law has a bank secrecy code that prohibits
other parties, excluding the police and investigating
prosecutors, to access bank accounts of individuals or groups for
the sake of a legal investigation.
"We (the Ministry) request two kinds of police assistance. The
first is to help us access the bank accounts of these judges, and
the second is to continue the investigation should our
preliminary investigation find the judges had been bribed.
As reported earlier, last month, the three judges -- Hasan
Basri, Ch. Kristipurnami Wulan, and Tjahyono -- of the Jakarta
Commercial Court declared AJMI bankrupt as it had failed to pay a
dividend earned in 1999 to its previous partner, the now defunct
PT Dharmala Sakti Sejahtera (DSS).
DSS filed the bankruptcy petition against AJMI over an unpaid
dividend.
Following the controversial verdict, the justice ministry set
up a team from the Inspectorate General to launch an
investigation by focusing at first on the three judges.
The team's members are Asril Azis Munek, Milton Hasibuan, and
Ngadikun Daliputro.
Yusril initially said the results would be disclosed within 10
days, but then extended it saying his men needed more time.
Tjapah said many witnesses had refused to testify before the
team on whether the judges had been bribed.
The team has also planned to probe Kristi's daughter, Dyah
Widowati Candradari, for a possible link between the judges and
her, since the latter is reportedly an associate of Lucas, a
lawyer for the Dharmala Group, which also supervised DSS.
Tjapah said Friday's investigation focused on questioning
Kalisutan, a former curator of AJMI, at his office in West
Jakarta.
None of the Ministry's officials, including Inspector General
Koeslan Reksodirdjo were available on Friday to comment on the
results of the investigation.