Nirwan Bakrie sued at commercial court

JAKARTA (JP): PT Sinar Mas Multifinance has filed a bankruptcy suit with the Jakarta Commercial Court against prominent businessman Nirwan D. Bakrie for his allegedly unfulfilled personal guarantee of over Rp 60 billion (US$8.5 million) in defaulted loans, according to a court document.

The document, dated Jan. 4, specifies that Nirwan pledged a personal guarantee for a loan extended to PT Bakrie Capital Indonesia (BCI), an affiliated company of family run diversified conglomerate PT Bakrie & Brothers.

The loan, which was disbursed in August 1997, was to finance the accounts receivable owned by BCI. The loan matured a year later in August 1998.

"Because BCI failed to repay the matured loan, we can recall the loan security which is the personal guarantee from Nirwan Bakrie," said the plaintiff's lawyer Benny Harman from Abdul Hakim G. Nusantara & Partners law firm.

Benny said his client had sent letters to BCI asking for repayment of the matured loan, "but they only released a statement that they were not able to repay yet because they had a cash flow problem due to the economic crisis."

Benny concluded that with such an excuse, the defendant admitted that the matured debt existed and that they could not repay it.

According to the 1998 Bankruptcy Law, the plaintiff has to prove that the party it is charging with bankruptcy -- an individual or a business entity -- has at least one matured debt and two creditors.

Benny also said Nirwan's personal guarantee was callable without having first to liquidate the assets of BCI, the direct party that owed the loan.

"The personal guarantor can be treated as if he were the direct debtor, according to the existing law," Benny said.

Thus Nirwan was responsible as if he were the direct recipient of the loan proceeds, Benny added.

Nirwan was qualified to be declared bankrupt, he said, because he also gave a personal guarantee to other parties, namely Bank Lippo, Bank Internasional Indonesia and Bank Nusa Internasional.

The court hearing for the case will open next week, according to commercial court staff. (udi)