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)