More banking fraud suspects detained

More banking fraud suspects detained

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Two more persons implicated in the Bank Dagang Bali (BDB) and
Bank Asiatic scandals have been detained by investigators,
bringing the number of suspects in police custody to five.

The two suspects, both from BDB, are I Gde Wibawa (former
treasury official) and I Nengah Suwardhana (former Jakarta branch
head). They have been detained since Saturday.

"Based on our team's investigation, we detained them last
Saturday. So there are five detainees now and we're charging them
under the banking legislation as well as the Criminal Code,"
National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Soenarko said on Monday.

The police have named nine former shareholders, directors and
managers of BDB and Bank Asia as suspects.

Earlier, the authorities detained three other suspects -- FB
Surendro (former president director) and Made Budiana (former
fund marketing director) from Bank Asiatic, and I Gusti Ngurah
Oka Budiana, the former chief commissioner of BDB.

Soenarko said the police had also questioned the three other
suspects, but had yet to decide whether they would be detained or
not.

"They're all from Bank Asiatic ... Tong Muk Keung (majority
shareholder), Won Tommy Sentana (former marketing director), and
Ignatius Eddy Candra (former credit director). However, they're
obliged to report their movements to the police," he said.

Soenarko did not elaborate why these suspects had not been put
behind the bars yet. He also said that the status of a suspect
could still change the investigation advanced.

Bank Indonesia revoked the operating permits of the two banks
on April 8 on account of their worsening financial conditions,
which were caused by what the central bank called fraudulent loan
transactions worth Rp 1.2 trillion (US$139 million).

The loans accounted for 70 percent of BDB's total assets of
only Rp 1.7 trillion. Banking regulations stipulate that a bank
is allowed to lend a maximum of 10 percent of its total lending
exposure to affiliated companies.

The government has provided Rp 2.39 trillion to cover the
funds owed to the two banks' depositors as part of its blanket
guarantee program.

At the time of closure, the Denpasar-based BDB had 31
branches, 632 employees and 408,000 depositors, while the
Jakarta-based Bank Asiatic had 150 employees and 2,200
depositors.