Police give up, ask the KPK to take over probe into BNI scam
Police give up, ask the KPK to take over probe into BNI scam
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Frustrated by their inability to complete case files on the main
suspects in the scam involving state bank BNI 46 and the
resulting low recovery of state losses, police have decided to
allow the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to take over
the probe.
National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said on Tuesday KPK
intervention was needed after the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office
returned the case file of the main suspect Adrian Waworuntu for
the sixth time. Police submitted on Monday the case file for the
seventh time.
The investigators, Da'i said, have been trying hard to collect
evidence to complete the dossiers of all main suspects, including
Adrian, but the prosecutors found them incomplete.
"We have been stretched to the limit in completing the case
files. We have nothing more to convince the prosecutors, and in
fact, we have offered the case to the KPK to handle," said Da'i.
According to the law, the KPK can take over cases from the
police or state prosecutors if the two institutions halt their
investigation into a case or hand over the case voluntarily to
the KPK.
The KPK, an antigraft super body, has the authority to tap or
tape-record conversations, order banks to freeze bank accounts
belonging to suspects, ask bank authorities to provide data on
the financial condition of suspects, order a travel ban and ask
help from Interpol or other overseas law enforcement institutions
to search for and arrest graft suspects and seize their assets
overseas.
Da'i said that the KPK had been involved in the investigation
into the bank scandal for months and therefore was quite familiar
with the difficulties the police were facing.
The case files of several other suspects, including the Baso
brothers, Jeffry and Judi, are being completed by the police.
The main suspect in the case, Maria Pauline Lumowa, the owner
of Gramarindo Group, has fled the country. She has denied
allegations that she had swindled the money.
Of 15 suspects in the case, Koesadiyuwono and Edi Santoso from
BNI Kebayoran Baru branch office have been convicted and
sentenced to 15 years in prison and life respectively. Other
suspects are being tried in the South Jakarta District Court.
Aside from bringing main suspects to justice, the police have
come under fire for failing to recover assets of the state-owned
bank.
BNI management and lawyers said the police managed only to
recover Rp 1 billion (US$108,000) out of Rp 1.3 trillion in state
losses resulting from the scam. The police claimed, however, to
have confiscated the bank's assets worth over Rp 200 billion.
KPK member Erry Riyana Harjapamekas said that the commission
had not been notified about the police's offer.
"We have not received any official request from the police.
However, we are ready to handle the case," said Erry.
While hailing the plan, lawyer Frans H. Winarta asserted that
both the police and the prosecutors could be blamed for the
protracted process in the case.
"The police can be considered incapable of gathering solid
evidence, while the prosecutors appear to lack the resolve to
handle the case," he said.
The police, he said, were known to lack capable personnel to
investigate such a delicate case and were prone to external
influence.
The scam, one of the largest banking scandals, centered around
several businesspeople from Gramarindo and Petindo Groups who
received money from the second largest bank in the country
between 2002 and 2003 by using fake letters of credit from
correspondent banks in Congo and Kenya to withdraw money from
BNI's Kebayoran Baru branch.