Police arrest 7th suspect in Bank Arta Prima scam
JAKARTA (JP): Police arrested yesterday one more businessman for his alleged involvement in corruption related to the issuance of commercial papers and bad credit at Bank Arta Prima.
City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Hamami Nata said yesterday the arrest of the businessman brought the total number of alleged suspects in the case to seven.
"The new alleged suspect's initial is S," said Hamami.
The police declined to disclose any additional information about the man's identity.
Six former directors of the bank and business men had earlier been arrested for alleged involvement in a scam worth Rp 1.2 trillion (US$516 million), made up of Rp 324 billion of commercial papers underwritten by Bank Arta Prima and Rp 700 billion in bad credit.
The bank, originally founded by PT Gunung Agung, had issued commercial papers without approval from Bank Indonesia, the central bank. Around 11 papers have been seized as evidence so far.
"The amount of confiscated assets related to the bank scam has reached around Rp 200 billion," Hamami said
The amount included assets seized earlier from one of the seven suspects in the case, Kim Johanes Mulia. He was one of the owners of PT Jagata Primabumi, which in July 1995 acquired Bank Arta Prima from Gunung Agung.
Chief of City Police Detectives, Col. Gories Mere, earlier said police had seized assets belonging to Kim worth around Rp 172.5 billion.
"As much as Rp 170 billion was in the form of commercial papers, while the remaining Rp 2.5 billion was derived from Kim's accounts at two local banks," Gories said.
One of the other six detained businessmen, Made Oka Masagung, was a former main shareholder and now advisor of PT Gunung Agung, a widely-diversified business group involved in book publishing, a bookstore chain and other businesses.
Kim and Made have officially been banned from leaving the country since May 7.
The remaining four were Chaidil Aini and Husni Ali Thaqil, respective former president and director of Bank Arta Prima, and Hari Suhalim and Marul Maulana, both former bank commissioners. (cst)