Pasar Jaya official to be tried for scam

Pasar Jaya official to be tried for scam

JAKARTA (JP): A PD Pasar Jaya's employee will be tried soon
for allegedly embezzling two billion rupiahs from the city-owned
company, Chief of Jakarta Prosecutor's Office Suyoto said
yesterday.

"We hope his trial can start in August," Suyoto told reporters
at the city hall.

He said the Jakarta high prosecutor's office has examined 21
people, including top staffers of the company.

Atin Setiadi, 36, an official at the firm's treasury office,
is charged with embezzling between Rp 400 million and Rp 2
billion (between US$186,306 and 931,532) of the company's money
through various schemes, including manipulating employees'
pension funds, insurance premiums, registration fees and firm's
taxes.

In manipulating the taxes, for example, Atin, who was in
charge of delivering the firm's taxes to the tax office, was able
to make fake copies of tax receipts and convince his boss that
the copies were genuine.

He was said to have committed the alleged fraud for years
before it was recently uncovered.

Immediately after his activities had been detected, Atin left
Jakarta for Saketi village in Pandeglang, West Java, where he
allegedly went into hiding for six months before he was captured
by police early this month.

City councilors believe Atin did not act alone in the theft
but was in collusion with the firm's high ranking officials. They
argued it was highly improbable for a low-ranking official like
Atin to embezzle such huge sums of money from the firm without
the knowledge of his superiors.

However, Suyoto said the prosecutors have found no evidence so
far that would indicate the involvement of other individuals in
the theft.

"So far, he is the only suspect in the embezzlement," he said.

Suyoto also said the prosecutors have yet to find if Atin had
any accomplices in the tax office. (jsk)