Pande Lubis declared suspect

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)