Police place suspects in BDB, Asiatic bank scam on wanted list

P.C. Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

All nine shareholders, commissioners and directors of recently closed Bank Dagang Bali and Bank Asiatic have reportedly fled their respective residences, prompting the police to put them on a wanted list.

National Police chief of detectives, Comr. Gen. Suyitno Landung Soedjono, said on Friday the police were attempting to determine the whereabouts of the bank officials, who are suspects in the two banks' failure.

Put on the police's wanted list are five officials from Bank Asiatic -- Tong Muk Keung (the majority shareholder), FB Surendro (former president director), Won Tommy Sentana (former marketing director), Ignatius Eddy Candra (former credit director) and Made Budiana (former fund marketing director).

From Bank Dagang Bali are I Gusti Ngurah Oka Budiana (former president commissioner), I Gusti Made Oka (the majority shareholder), Gede Wibawa (former treasury official) and I Nengah Suwardhana (former head of the Jakarta branch).

Suyitno said police were unsure if the suspects were still in Indonesia or had fled the country.

"We imposed travel bans on the nine bank officials on April 8, but when we checked on them at their addresses, we found that they were not living there anymore," said Suyitno.

"If it is true that they have already fled the country then we will coordinate with Interpol," he said.

Bank Indonesia closed down Bank Dagang Bali (BDB) and Bank Asiatic on April 8 and slapped travel banks on the shareholders, commissioners and directors.

According to Suyitno, police began tracing the whereabouts of the nine officials last Thursday.

Police earlier said they had sufficient evidence to indict the nine officials for fraudulent banking transactions.

The case against the nine bank officials reportedly became stronger after police studied several documents and files submitted by Bank Indonesia on April 8 and after a coordination meeting last Wednesday with the central bank, which was also attended by a team from the Attorney General's Office and officers from the Bali Police.

According to Bank Indonesia, the case centers on a number of allegedly fraudulent loans and legal lending limit infractions by the two banks, which were owned by two families connected by marriage.

The BDB placed funds in Asiatic in the form of interbank loans and Negotiable Certificates of Deposit. The funds were later used as collateral for loans to the son of BDB's majority stakeholder, I Gusti Made Oka, who is married to the daughter of Bank Asiatic's former owner, Tong Muk Keung.

The amount of the loans provided to I Gusti Made Oka's son reportedly exceeded the legal lending limit allowed by banking law. The loans accounted for 70 percent of Asiatic's total assets of Rp 1.7 trillion.

Existing banking regulations requires that a bank lend a maximum of only 10 percent of its lending exposure to an affiliated company.

The Denpasar-based BDB currently has 408,000 depositors, while the Jakarta-based Asiatic has 2,200 depositors. The government must provide some Rp 2.39 trillion (US$281 million) to cover the money of the two banks' depositors as part of its blanket guarantee program.