Police to seize money embezzled from bank
Police to seize money embezzled from bank
JAKARTA (JP): The city police will soon ask the Jakarta District Court and the minister of finance for permission to confiscate Rp 18 billion embezzled by a suspect in the HongkongBank fraud case and currently deposited at a local Unibank branch here.
City police spokesman Lt. Col Iman Haryatna was quoted by Antara as saying here yesterday that several days ago a group of police officers came to Unibank to confiscate the money belonging to Hans Wowor, one of the suspects in the HongkongBank fraud case which caused the bank losses of about Rp 79 billion (US$34.35 million).
"But the bank director wouldn't let us without an official permit from the minister of finance," Iman said.
The chief of the Jakarta police's economic crime section Lt.Col Aryanto Sutadi told a press conference yesterday that the police needed to confiscate the money as part of their investigation.
He admitted that city police are still trying to understand how the staff of the bank's branch office here could fail to check on the fake money transfer orders.
Aryanto added, however, that he did not want to blame anybody or any party at the moment.
"The question is how could the bank's employees have failed to make any reconfirmation with the overseas banks which were identified as the senders of the orders," asked Aryanto.
Meanwhile, Bank Indonesia Governor J. Soedradjad Djiwandono said yesterday that the bank has issued a set of regulations to strengthen controls over banking operations in the country.
"The regulations augur well for preventing bank frauds, but you know thieves are everywhere," he told reporters when asked to comment on the HongkongBank fiasco.
In a written statement made available to The Jakarta Post yesterday, the bank's spokeswoman, Leila Djafaar, said that on Jan. 3 the HongkongBank's internal financial control department revealed that a case of fraud had occurred within its main branch in Jakarta.
She said that the case was promptly reported to the authorities in Indonesia, the Central Bank (Bank Indonesia ) and the police.
"It was also reported simultaneously to HongkongBank's head office in Hong Kong and subsequently to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority as well as Hongkong Bank's parent company, HSBC Holdings plc in London, which later notified the Bank of England," Leila said.
She said the amount defrauded was Rp 97 billion (US$42.0 million), of which Rp 18 billion (US$ 7.8 million) has been recovered.
"We are fully cooperating with the Indonesian authorities in their investigations and are pursuing all avenues to recover the stolen funds in full," Leila said.
She disclosed that HongkongBank has made certain changes to its security controls following the fraud and that all procedures are now under review.
She added that regardless of the eventual outcome, the case will have no material effect on the financial standing of HongkongBank or HSBC Holdings plc.
Based on preliminary police investigations and the reports filed by HongkongBank, the fake money orders first requested the transfer of Rp 165 billion. The orders were sent via telexes under the names of three leading banks in Switzerland and Germany with orders from a corporation called Agro Impact in Italy.
As of yesterday, only Hans Wowor, a 46-year-old local businessman, had been arrested by police.
The key suspect, identified as Philippine passport holder Henry O.Vendijo, 55, is still at large together with two other suspects, identified as Tan Tek Hin, believed to be Singaporean, and Atik Cornelius, an Indonesian national.(bas)