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.