Police begin Bank Bali probe

Police begin Bank Bali probe

JAKARTA (JP): National Police started investigations into the
Bank Bali scandal on Monday, questioning four of eight people
allegedly involved in the controversial US$80 million deal.

The four were Bank Bali directors Rusli Suryadi, Firman
Soetjahja, and Henri Kurniawan, and the bank's legal division
manager Irvan D. Gunawan.

Lawyers representing the four defendants said their clients
came to the National Police Headquarters for preliminary
questioning.

"Police detectives asked my client about his job description
and authority in the decision-making process," Trimedya
Panjaitan, a lawyer defending Rusli Suryadi, told reporters at
the police headquarters.

He said the police asked his client 16 questions, mostly
regarding the deal between Bank Bali and PT Era Giat Prima (EGP)
in which a Rp 546 billion commission was paid to help the bank
recoup Rp 904 billion in interbank claims on closed banks.

Trimedya said Rusli had no idea about the appointment of EGP
as a "broker" in the deal, but heard that former Bank Bali
president Rudy Ramli and EGP director Djoko S. Chandra had made a
deal to recover the outstanding loans.

National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Togar M. Sianipar said
separately that the police named the four Bank Bali officials as
suspects while the investigation was underway.

"If we find no evidence against them, their status will
automatically be reverted to witnesses," Togar said.

Other suspects in the case are Rudy Ramli, EGP chairman Setya
Novanto and director Dj Djoko Chandra, and Indonesian Bank
Restructuring Agency (IBRA) deputy chairman Pande Lubis. (emf)