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)