Police declare bank scamp suspect Adrian fugitive
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The National Police Headquarters finally declared on Friday Adrian Waworuntu, the main suspect in the Rp 1.7 trillion Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) scandal, a fugitive following the latter's failure to surrender himself to the police on the same day.
Friday was the deadline for Adrian to report to police headquarters.
"As he didn't show up today, we have placed him on the police's most wanted list," said National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Suyitno Landung Sudjono, during a press conference at the National Police Headquarters.
Through his lawyer Doni Antares Irawan, suspect Adrian, an executive at export-import company PT Gramarindo Group, had earlier asked police personnel for seven days to undergo medical treatment and promised to surrender himself to police by Friday.
But, police did not wait for Adrian to show up at police headquarters and tried to track him down.
Suyitno said that the police had sent a team to Manado to pick Adrian up but his doctor said that the fugitive had returned to Jakarta.
The search proved to be the right move as Adrian's promise turned out to be just empty words. He never showed up at police headquarters.
Suyitno said that his men would keep hunting down Adrian.
The police seemed to have difficulties in locating Adrian as he has not been under police custody since early this year. Adrian already disappeared before police completed his case file.
Many have questioned why the police did not monitor Adrian as he remained a suspect in the scandal.
Meanwhile, Suyitno believes that Adrian is still in Indonesia as according to data from the immigration office, there is no record of Adrian having left the country. Besides, Suyitno argued, the travel ban for him was still in effect.
However, many suspects and fugitives have successfully fled the country using other names or by bribing officials at the border.
Another suspect central to the case, Maria Pauline Lumowa, the owner of Gramarindo group, has been able to evade arrest by staying out of the country.
Adrian was among several executives at PT Gramarindo and Petindo Groups accused of embezzling money from PT BNI 46, the second largest bank in the country between 2002 and 2003, by using letters of credit from correspondent banks in the Congo and Kenya to withdraw money from BNI's Kebayoran Baru branch.
The letters of credit turned out to be fake, causing the state bank to suffer losses of Rp 1.7 trillion.
There are 16 suspects in the case. Seven of them, including Koesadiyuwono and Edi Santoso from BNI Kebayoran Baru branch have been convicted. Koesadiyuwono received 15 years in prison and Edi received life. Five Gramarindo directors have been sentenced to between eight and 15 years in prison.