Police bar bad debtors from leaving the country
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The National Police Headquarters has sent a letter to the immigration office asking that 29 former directors, commissioners and shareholders of five shutdown banks be banned from leaving the country.
The move comes days after the police received documents from the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) charging the former bankers with abusing state money.
"We have also set up an investigative team to look into the cases. The team will coordinate with the Attorney General's Office and IBRA," a spokesman for the National Police, Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang, said on Friday as reported by detik.com.
The banks in question are Bank Intan, Bank PSP, Bank Namura, Bank Bahari and Bank Metropolitan.
IBRA reported the former bankers to the police on Tuesday, apparently losing patience over their continued refusal to settle their debts despite being offered discounts.
IBRA has agreed to waive the interest on their debts and all fines, amounting to Rp 1.43 trillion, thus slashing their total debt to Rp 2.186 trillion from Rp 3.618 trillion.
The five banks were closed by the government in 1999 as part of the effort to restructure the banking industry.
The owners of the five banks are among 24 debtors grouped under the Deed of Indebtedness (APU) debt settlement scheme. The 24 debtors owe the government a combined Rp 18 trillion.
IBRA is hopeful that taking legal action against the debtors will improve the chance of recouping the state funds and convince other debtors to be more cooperative with the agency.
APU is one of three debt settlement schemes signed by IBRA and 35 former bank owners in 1998. By signing on to the schemes, the ex-bank owners were able to avoid prosecution for misusing Bank Indonesia liquidity support of Rp 138 trillion.
The central bank extended Rp 144.5 trillion in liquidity support to 48 banks to prevent the collapse of the country's banking sector, but the Supreme Audit Agency found that 95 percent of the money was misused.
The other two debt settlement schemes are the Master of Acquisition and Settlement Agreements, and the Master of Refinancing and Notes Issuance Agreements.