Police arrest 7th suspect in Bank Arta Prima scam
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)