Police hunt for two men in Rp 6b insurance fraud
JAKARTA (JP): City police detectives are searching for two men, who allegedly used fictitious documents and an obituary notice, to claim Rp 6 billion (US$800,000) insurance from the Hongkong Manulife Insurance Company, an officer said on Wednesday.
Jakarta Police secretary to the chief of detectives, Lt. Col. Tjiptono, identified the two as Kho Jan Sia and Yan Budimardja, the beneficiary of the insurance policy, who claimed himself as the uncle of "the late" Kho Jan Sia.
According to officer Tjiptono, the two suspects failed to collect the claim thanks to the immediate internal investigation carried out by the insurance company, that found that the suspects allegedly used a fake death certificate, a bogus corpse examination letter, and a fictitious obituary announcement in a daily newspaper in an attempt to get the cash.
In the phony documents, some of which they obtained by bribes, Kho was reportedly dead.
Another police source close to the investigation said, "We believe Kho, who goes by many aliases, such as Johnson Kho, Jason Simkoputera, and lately, Yusuf Effendi, is still alive."
The officer, who asked for anonymity, said Kho's wife, Australian national Gillian Kho, and daughter Amanda Kho, still reside in Australia.
However, he did not disclose whether Kho's wife and daughter have also been named as suspects in the case.
So far, the Jakarta Police have questioned three witnesses, including Dr. Darman, who made out the fake corpse examination letter, which led to the issuance of the fake death certificate of (suspect) Kho Jan Sia, the police source said.
The police identified the two other suspects as Ari Sutoro, a driver of a neighbor to Yusuf, who has seen Yusuf on several occasions, alive and healthy after the obituary announcement in a local evening daily on July 30, 1999; and Solichin, a male servant who was sacked by Yusuf after the obituary was published.
An inhouse lawyer of Manulife Indonesia, Warsito, recalled that Yan, the beneficiary, had tried claiming the insurance money from his office rather than the Hongkong Manulife office where Yan purchased the insurance.
After the claim, he was assigned to probe the case as is customary, Warsito told The Jakarta Post.
During the investigation, Warsito learned that the death certificate issued by an official at the Central Jakarta Public Records Office stating that Kho Jan Sia passed away on June 8, 1999, and the corpse examination report issued by the Sawah Besar Community Health Center (Puskesmas), stating that Kho had been cremated in Cilincing were fake.
"At the Cilincing Crematorium, we found out that no body by the name of Kho Jan Sia or Jason Simkoputera was cremated in June last year," Warsito said.
The lawyer also found a difference in the date of Kho's death in the obituary notice, informing that Kho Jan Sia, 45, passed away on June 28, 1999, and would be cremated at the Cilincing Crematorium, on June 30, 1999.
"By phone, Yan then explained to us that Kho had been cremated at King Palace Crematorium and Mortuary of Jabar Agung Foundation, on Jl. Dadap Kamal, behind the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport," Warsito said.
At that facility the lawyer found a document made out by an employee of the crematorium that stated that Kho was cremated there on June 11, 1999, and that Yan was the one responsible.
The police source said that detectives were still trying to locate the employee who falsified the document.
Separately, doctor Darman, a civilian doctor who works at the medical and health division of the National Police Headquarters told investigators that he issued the letter confirming Kho's death simply upon the request of Yan, his regular patient, who said that his father named Kho Jan Sia had passed away.
"Darman said that he felt very sorry for Yan ... and that he himself never even bothered to check whether Kho was really dead or not. He said that he received nothing from Yan for the letter," a police source said. (ylt)