Prajogo grilled by AGO, denies graft charges

Prajogo grilled by AGO, denies graft charges

JAKARTA (JP): Timber tycoon Prajogo Pangestu was grilled by
state prosecutors at the Attorney General's Office for almost six
hours on Friday over alleged corruption practices that caused
more than Rp 331 billion in losses to the state.

Prajogo told reporters after the questioning that the
allegations, based on a report handed over by former secretary-
general of the Ministry of Forestry Suripto, was not true.

"Such a report could only have been made by a mad man," he
said, adding that he will ask the investigators to give him more
time to clarify himself.

In the report, Suripto claimed that Prajogo's forestry
concession PT Musi Hutan Persada had marked up the size of its
timber plantation estate from its actual 118,000 hectares to
193,500 hectares in the early 1990s in order to obtain a state
loan from reforestation funds, causing some Rp 331 billion in
state losses.

PT Musi was also accused of reneging on its obligation to pay
interest on a bank loan that had amounted to some Rp 154 billion
late last year and had manipulated its assets and industry
concessions to obtain Rp 9.91 trillion from a consortium of 25
international banks.

Suripto is now at the center of a controversy, which charges
the former military intelligence officer with treason.

Prajogo has yet to be named a suspect.

His lawyer Denny Kailimang explained that the state losses
caused by Prajogo were actually the company's debts to the state
reforestation funds, of which the payments are due separately in
2004 and 2007.

Earlier in the day, former minister of forestry Hasjrul
Harahap was also questioned at the Attorney General's Office as a
witness in connection with Prajogo's case.

Hasjrul, who held the position between 1988 and 1993, was
approved the loan although Prajogo had yet to pay his dues as
required.

Separately, deputy attorney general for special crimes
Bachtiar Fachri Nasution said the team investigating President
Abdurrahman Wahid's alleged role in the Rp 35 billion graft at
the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), is about to accomplish its
task.

"Hopefully we can disclose the result of the investigation by
the end of this month," he told journalists. (bby)