Police submit BNI case dossier to prosecutors

Police submit BNI case dossier to prosecutors

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The National Police submitted the case files on five suspects in
the Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) scandal to the Jakarta
prosecutor's office on Monday, with their trial now expected to
start soon.

Olla Abdullah Agam, Adrian Pandelaki Lumowa, Richard Kountul,
Aprilia Widharta and Titik Pristiwanti will make up the second
group of suspects to stand trial for their involvement in the Rp
1.7 trillion scam.

They are directors of the Gramarindo group of companies, which
is alleged to have fraudulently received billions of BNI money.

"The (four) male suspects have been moved to Cipinang prison,
while the female suspect (Titik Pristiwanti) will be returned to
police headquarters as the Pondok Bambu women's penitentiary is
full. Besides, the police still need information from her
regarding the role of other suspects," Marwan Effendy of the
Jakarta prosecutor's office said.

Police handed over the case files on two other suspects, Edy
Santoso and Kusadiwiyono, to the South Jakarta District Court on
Feb. 5 .

Their trials, said Marwan, were expected to begin next week.

Edy is the former BNI customer service division head for
foreign banks at the Kebayoran Baru branch, while Kusadiwiyono
was the manager of the branch.

After receiving the case files, the South Jakarta prosecutor's
office will prepare to bring the cases before the South Jakarta
District Court.

"Hopefully, they can go to trial by the end of this month or
early next month," he said.

Normally, it takes a district court two weeks to start a trial
from the date on which the case files have been finalized.

The five suspects are being charged under Law No.20/2001 on
corruption, and/or Law No. 25/2003 on money laundering.

The BNI scandal surfaced late last year when BNI's Kebayoran
branch in South Jakarta granted fictitious export credits to
eight Gramarindo group subsidiaries with L/Cs issued by foreign
banks as collateral. Police suspect the loans were channeled
directly to the companies as no goods were exported and the bills
of lading attached to the L/Cs were fake.

Marwan said the prosecutor's office had obtained evidence,
including US$238,000 in cash from Edy Santoso, as well as various
documents and asset titles. He did not elaborate.

However, the prime suspect in the scandal, Maria Pauline
Lumowa, is still at large and out of reach in Singapore. Many
alleged corruptors are suspected to be hiding in that country as
Indonesia has no extradition treaty with Singapore.

Speaking on behalf of his fellow suspects, Adrian Lumowa
suggested that the prosecutor's office handle the case
objectively. He also said that he had not had any contact with
Maria because he had been in police detention since Nov. 6, 2003.

Police are also studying the files on other suspects, such as
Nirwan Ali, Jeffry Baso, Yudi Basso, and Andrean Waworuntu.