Pande Lubis declared suspect

JAKARTA (JP): Former deputy chairman of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) Pande Lubis was officially named as a suspect on Tuesday in the high-profile Bank Bali scandal.

Attorney General Office spokesman R.J. Soehandoyo told Antara that Pande's status as a witness had changed into a suspect on corruption charges following an investigation into Setya Novanto and Djoko S. Tjandra.

There were indications that Pande was involved in the Bank Bali's cessie transaction worth Rp 904 billion (US$133 million), Soehandoyo said.

The Attorney General Office's investigation into the Bank Bali scandal was launched on Oct. 26 by a team headed by Ridwan Moekiat.

Djoko of PT Era Giat Prima (EGP) and Setya Novanto, EGP executive and Golkar deputy treasurer, had both been detained by the police earlier for their direct involvement in the Bank Bali scandal.

Djoko has been placed under the Attorney General Office's custody for investigation purposes, while Setya, who is a House of Representative legislator, was released but is obliged to visit the office for regular reports.

Pande, accompanied by his lawyer Afifudin, was interrogated and had to answer 15 questions raised by the attorney general during the questioning, which lasted approximately four and a half hours.

The Bank Bali scandal involved a commission transfer of Rp 546 billion from Bank Bali to EGP. The commission transfer was intended as a fee for retrieving interbank claims from closed banks currently under supervision of the IBRA. (02)