Police say they have sufficient grounds to indict 9 bankers

Police say they have sufficient grounds to indict 9 bankers

P.C. Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Police claim they have sufficient evidence to indict nine
executives of the now defunct Bank Dagang Bali (BDB) and Bank
Asiatic for fraud involving Rp 1.2 trillion (US$139).

"We have strong evidence of the role of those nine people in
this case," National Police Deputy Spokesman Brig. Gen. Soenarko
D. Ardanto said on Thursday.

Suspicion of the involvement of the banks' high ranking
officials surfaced after police studied files and documents
submitted by Bank Indonesia and after a technical meeting with a
team from BI, the Attorney General's Office and a team from Bali
Police on Wednesday.

The police have asked the deputy attorney general for
political affairs to impose a travel ban on the nine bankers. A
travel ban can be issued only for people who have been declared
suspects.

Of the nine executives of the defunct banks, five are from
Asiatic: Tong Muk Keung (majority share holder), FB Surendro
(former president director), Won Tommy Sentana (former marketing
director), Ignatius Eddy Candra (former credit director) and Made
Budiana (former fund marketing director).

The executives from BDB are I Gusti Ngurah Oka Budiana (former
chief commissioner),I Gusti Made Oka (the majority share holder),
Gede Wibawa (former treasury official), and I Nengah Suwardhana
(former Jakarta branch head).

Soenarko said the investigating team was currently preparing
all necessary measures before summoning the officials for
questioning.

According to the central bank, the alleged irregularities
center on a number of lending frauds and legal lending limit
violations involving affiliated companies which turned out to be
fictitious.

The problem came to light after BDB placed funds at Asiatic in
the form of interbank loans and Negotiable Certificates of
Deposit (NCD), which were later on used as loan collateral by the
son of BDB's owner, who is married to a daughter of the Asiatic's
owner.

The amount of loans provided to the son of BDB's owner
exceeded the legal lending limit allowed under the banking law.
The loans accounted for 70 percent of Asiatic's total assets of
Rp 1.7 trillion.

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

BDB is a Bali-based lender with 31 branches, 632 employees and
408,000 depositors. The Jakarta-based Asiatic bank employed
around 150 staff and had 2,200 depositors.