More suspects detained in BNI case
Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Police said on Friday they had detained two more suspects in the 2002 embezzlement of Rp 1.7 trillion (US$182 million) from Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI).
Yoke Yola Sigar and Dicky Iskandardinata, both charged with money laundering, were arrested on Thursday night in Jakarta, and were being intensively grilled at the National Police headquarters.
The arrests came three months after businessman Adrian Waworuntu, a key suspect in the misuse of the funds disbursed by BNI's Kebayoran Baru branch, was sentenced to death last April by the South Jakarta District Court.
Also, prosecutors in Medan, North Sumatra, arrested three former BNI directors on Wednesday for their alleged involvement in a lending scam worth up to Rp 500 billion.
The Medan Prosecutor's Office spokesman A.J. Ketaren said former BNI president director Saifuddin Hasan, former treasury director Rachmat Wiriaatmadja and former corporate director Suryo Sutanto were responsible for disbursing the loan to PT Industri Baja Garuda, which was found to have been used for other purposes than the one stated in the credit application.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Aryanto Boedihardjo said Yoke, who is Adrian's sister and a commissioner of PT Aditya Putrapratama Finance, had allegedly received Rp 5.1 billion disbursed from BNI through fictitious letters of credit from BNI's Kebayoran Baru branch.
Dicky was the owner of a company that also allegedly obtained some of the money, but the police could not yet determine his exact role in the case, according to Aryanto.
Dicky, who had been jailed over a lending scam at the liquidated Bank Duta, and Yoke were among a total of 17 suspects in the BNI scandal to face graft trials. The first nine suspects had all been sentenced to prison, including Adrian Waworuntu.
The eight others were John Hamenda who got 20 years in jail; Olla Abdullah Agam, Aprilla Widata and Adrian Pandelaki, all for 15 years; Richard Kountul (10 years), Titik Pristiwati, (8 years) and BNI Kebayoran Baru head Koesadiyuwono (15 years), while the branch office's customer service head was sentenced to life.
The police were hunting down another key suspect Maria Pauline Lumowa who remains at large. The Dutch woman, who was born in Indonesia, was a commissioner of PT Gramarindo, one of the companies receiving the funds from BNI Kebayoran Baru. She is currently residing in Singapore but could not be captured by the Indonesian police due to the absence of an extradition agreement with the neighboring country.
The police however planned to try Maria in absentia soon.
Other suspects, namely Jeffry Baso and Yudhi, had been detained for 20 days as regulated by the Criminal Code Procedures (KUHAP), but were released later as the police failed to complete their case files.
"The dossiers of Jeffry Baso and Yudi were returned by prosecutors five times and we are once again working on them now," said fraud squad director at the National Police Brig. Gen. Andi Chaeruddin.