Police arrest 11 men suspected of faking documents

JAKARTA (JP): City police detectives have arrested a gang of 11 people on charges of allegedly producing and selling fake documents and certificates, such as postgraduate university diplomas, passports and land and building permits.

Col. Alex Bambang Riatmodjo, head of Jakarta Police detectives, said on Monday the gang members were arrested in a series of raids within a period of 10 days, ending last Friday.

"They, for example, sold fake degrees from the University of Indonesia at Rp 10 million (US$1,430) each," Alex said.

The police, he said, are still investigating the number of people the gang had cheated in the past two years of their operation. They ran the business from a house on Jl. Cempaka Putih Timur, Central Jakarta.

"During the raids, we seized 185 fake stamping devices, diskettes, ink and hundreds of fake land and building permits, land tax papers, passports and identification cards," officer Alex said.

"We'll nail these suspects with Articles 266 and 263 of the Criminal Code," Alex told reporters.

The first article stipulates a maximum sentence of seven years in jail for ordering someone to type false information on authentic documents, while Article 263 carries a six-year jail term for faking permits.

Alex identified the 11 gang members, some of whom have college degrees, as leader Hasan Basri Illyas, 69, Hidayat B. Sukardja, 54, Yahya alias Maya, 58, Welly Widjaja, 62, Kusnodo Bin Ambari, 47, Setyo Purwanto, 32, Anton Azis Suardi Bin Ali, 53, Didi Suprapto Bin Sukiman, 24, Tubagus Rahardjo, 37, Tugiran Bin Keman, 47 and Amaluddin Asmoeni, 40.

He explained the most profitable element of the suspects' business was the selling of counterfeited land deal documents. Their land certificates sold well at Rp 500,000 each.

Their fake ID cards, land tax papers and university diplomas were offered at higher prices, but rarely sold as well.

The ID cards and land tax papers, for example, were sold at Rp 1.5 million each.

" We suspect the involvement of officers at the National Land Agency (BPN) in the production of land certificates since most of the documents have original serial numbers," Alex said.

The arrest of the gang, he said, began when a man calling himself Husen Sanusi, later identified as gang leader Hasan Basri Illyas, rented a building use permit to Achmad Fahmi for Rp 124 million.

When Achmad checked the permit for authenticity at a BPN office, he found out that it was a fake.

"Achmad lodged a complaint on Nov. 12. We asked Achmad to cooperate since he had not paid the full Rp 124 million to the man.

The men then arranged to meet on Jl. Pelikan in Ciputat, Tangerang, on Nov. 16, for Achmad to make the payment to Hasan. When Hasan received the money on that day, we arrested him," officer Alex said.

He added that the gang members, except Hasan, earned no more than Rp 250,000 a month.

"While Hasan bought himself a BMW 320 series on the proceeds from this business." he said. (ylt)