Police declare bank scamp suspect Adrian fugitive
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.