Multilevel marketing

My wife used to be a member of multilevel marketing company PT BMA's West Jakarta branch and paid Rp 290,000 for a package. Later she took two packages for an initial capital of Rp 2.1 million each. After 30 days, she reaped a 30 percent profit of Rp 630,000 per package. Five percent of this amount was deducted as commission.

When she wanted to make another deal she was asked to take at least five packages. This was too burdensome for her, and while trying to get friends to join the business, she learned from TV reports that some multilevel marketing firms in North Sumatra, including PT BMA, also with branches in Surabaya, were raided by the police and later closed down. It was said that a boss of a multilevel marketing company in Medan had fled, taking customers' money amounting to Rp 1 trillion. Fortunately my wife has not suffered any losses from these business deals.

My wife learned that PT BMA's customers in Jakarta consist of people from all walks of life -- meatball noodle vendors, housemaids and even well-to-do people who placed their money in terms of hundreds of millions or even in the billions. She has not heard of any Jakarta customers suffering losses from this business in the sense that the company did not fail to pay back people's capital and the people made some profit. One good thing about PT BMA Jakarta is that the company is willing to show its accounts in several banks and allows customers to transfer money to any of the banks. Also the company told its customers that it had made available Rp 1 trillion at BII as a guarantee for customers' money.

It seems the company operates in a professional enough manner, after all it won public confidence. Even after the news of the closures of multilevel marketing firms in Medan and Surabaya, PT BMA in Jakarta is running as usual, and many people still put their money into the company. But my wife stopped participating in this business after the release of the bad news, and lost her Rp 290,000.

Will the authorities raid and close down PT BMA's Jakarta branch? Many people want to know what follow-up measures will be taken and the final position of the company. Or is there a power play behind it? Why have the authorities taken an indifferent attitude to this case?

Has the company, being a profit-making body, paid income tax? The director general of tax could look into this.

SUHARSONO HADIKUSUMO

Jakarta