Police arrest man for cement fraud in Bogor

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

Bogor City Police arrested a man for selling cheap cement and passing it off as Tiga Roda cement produced by PT Indocement Tunggak Prakasa Tbk. during a raid at a warehouse belonging to a brick company on Saturday.

Bogor Police operational chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Syarief Hidayat said on Monday that during the raid his officers also confiscated hundreds of sacks of cement in Cimanggu village, Bogor regency.

Syarief said the suspect was identified as Pendi, 41, a local resident.

The raid, according to Syarief, was conducted following a tip off from Indocement, which had spotted the cement in the market and recognized that it was not produced by Indocement.

"The report was followed by an investigation by local police and led to Saturday's raid," said Syarief.

Syarief said the suspect filled used Tiga Roda cement sacks with cement powder produced by Kujang.

The "Tiga Roda" cement was then marketed in Ciawi, Bojong Gede and Megamendung in Bogor at Rp 27,500 per sack (around US$2.80) instead of the official Tiga Roda price of Rp 29,000.

During the raid, Bogor Police found two trucks with 200 sacks of the fake Tiga Roda cement and 1,000 empty sacks of Tiga Roda cement.

Officials also seized three trucks they suspected were used by the suspect to deliver the cement, as well as 400 other sacks of cement powder inside the warehouse.

They also found a large container and two dynamos.

"I don't know how much financial loss PT Indocement Tunggal Prakasa has suffered. What is clear is that this scam has inflicted financial losses not only on the company but has also caused losses to the public at large," Syarief said.