Police detain court receiver in Manulife case

JAKARTA (JP): The police said on Tuesday that they had detained the court receiver in an alleged sales scam involving insurance company PT Asuransi Jiwa Manulife Indonesia (AJMI).

National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Saleh Saaf said that court receiver Ari Ahmad Effendi had been held in detention since Thursday last week.

"We have put Ari Ahmad Effendi, into police custody since Thursday. His detention will be effective until Dec. 26," Saleh told The Jakarta Post.

The police have so far detained two out of six suspects, whom are alleged to have facilitated the sale of a 40 percent stake in AJMI by using duplicated shares.

Last month, the police detained AJMI's vice president Adhie Poernomo, whom they later released.

"Adhie has released from police custody since Nov. 20, but he can still be questioned anytime," Saleh said.

The Manulife case centers around the sale of a 40 percent stake in AJMI by the Jakarta Commercial Court to the Canadian- based insurance firm Manufacturer Life Insurance Co. (Manulife) through a tender process.

Manulife paid Rp 170 billion for the 40 percent stake, which would raise its ownership in its joint venture AJMI to 91 percent from 51 percent.

The shares were previously held by PT Dharmala Sakti Sejahtera, which the Jakarta Commercial Court declared bankrupt in June.

Ari was the court receiver that organized the tender to auction Dharmala's stake in AJMI to help creditors recoup their loans.

However, the tender was disputed by the Virgin Islands-based Roman Gold Assets Ltd., which claimed it had already bought the 40 percent stake from Dharmala in an earlier agreement.

The company argued it owned the original shares, accusing Adhie and Ari of duplicating Dharmala's shares in AJMI.

Roman reported its suspicions to the police, who then detained Adhie and Ari.

The other suspects are Mitchel David New, who acted as the buyer, Kusmartono, who conducted the tender, Victor Apps, the president of AJMI and Syamsuddin M. Sinaga, the judge in Dharmala's bankruptcy case.

Saleh further said that the National Police Headquarters had sent the dossiers of three suspects in the alleged sales scam to the Jakarta High Court late last week, where they will be processed before being handed over to the designated district court.

The dossiers, he said, were of Ari Ahmad Effendi, Kusmartono, and Adhie Poernomo Widjaya.

"We are still in the process of completing the dossier on suspect Mitchell David New," he added.

The Jakarta High Court reviews police dossiers to decide whether a case is strong enough to proceed to court.

Otherwise, the police will continue their investigation, including the questioning of the three suspects, in order to present a valid case to the court.

Sources close to the tender process said that two senior officers at the police headquarters had threatened Dharmala's former creditors by saying that they would be included in the list of suspects.

According to them, the police intended to interrogate top executives of Dharmala's 23 creditors.

These include large foreign banks such as Standard Chartered Bank, American Express Bank, ABN AMRO Bank and the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA).

But Saleh denied any plans to expand the list of suspects to the creditors, saying that the police were only focussing on the current list.

The handling of the Manulife case received wide criticism, in particular from the Canadian Finance Minister, who had sent a letter of protest to his Indonesian counterpart.

In response to the case, the Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) conducted its own investigation into the case involving Dharmala, which had been a publicly listed company.

Bapepam questioned the Power of Attorney with which Dharmala sold its 40 percent stake to Roman Gold.

"Dharmala management's failure to notify its auditors, Bapepam or the public of the existence of an important document such as the power of attorney, is a violation of the capital market regulation," the agency said.

AJMI filed last month the very same criminal charges of forgery against Suyanto Gondokusumo, the principal of Dharmala, and Roman.

AJMI argued that by law, the assets of a bankrupt company was subject to the court receiver's supervision. Thus any asset sales outside that conducted by the court was illegal.

Roman has said that it bought Dharmala's shares in AJMI in Oct, long after Dharmala was declared bankrupt.

The police however, has yet to report any progress on AJMI's criminal suits.(bkm/ylt)