Police not ready to begin investigation of Bambang

Police not ready to begin investigation of Bambang

JAKARTA (JP): Police said on Wednesday that they were not
ready to begin an investigation into businessman Bambang
Trihatmodjo, the second son of former president Soeharto, in
connection with a scandal at Bank Andromeda, which he partly
controlled.

The investigation into Bambang was to have begun on Wednesday,
but police were forced to reschedule it to next week because they
were still investigating other bankers.

"Our team is not ready yet," Lt. Col. Saleh Saaf of the
National Police Information Service told reporters. "It isn't
because Bambang refused to come here," he added.

Saleh said Bambang had been cooperative with the police. "He
said he would come here whenever his presence was required."

Police earlier announced that they had issued an arrest
warrant for Bambang and other commissioners and directors of Bank
Andromeda, which was closed down by the government in November
last year for exceeding its lending limit. They said Bambang had
ignored two summonses.

Police, however, later retracted the statement, saying they
would issue summonses and subsequently an arrest warrant if these
were ignored.

Saleh said the police were still working on the dossiers of
two of Bank Andromeda's directors, Nico Malangkay and Isman Dito.

Both men are already in police detention.

"We are building the case against them. Once completed, we can
work on other commissioners," he said.

Noted businessmen Henri Pribadi, Prajogo Pangestu and Peter F.
Gontha sit on Andromeda's board of commissioners with Bambang.

Peter F. Gontha was scheduled to be questioned Thursday at 9
a.m. at the police headquarters on Jl. Trunojoyo in South
Jakarta, he said. Saleh did not confirm whether Gontha would go
to the headquarters but did say he hoped Gontha would show up.

Minister of Justice Muladi said on Tuesday that the government
had banned all the commissioners and directors of Bank Andromeda
from leaving the country pending the result of the current police
investigation, Antara reported. (emf)