Prajogo named as graft suspect over forest concessions

JAKARTA (JP): Timber tycoon Prajogo Pangestu has been named a suspect by the Attorney General's Office in a corruption case involving forestry concessions held by his company PT Musi Hutan Persada.

The state is alleging that it suffered losses of more than Rp 331 billion as a result of the alleged graft.

Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes Bachtiar Fachri Nasution said on Monday that Prajogo had actually been declared a suspect at the end of last week.

"We had planned to summon Prajogo today (Monday) for further questioning. He, however, failed to appear here due to ill- health, and he is now receiving treatment at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore," Bactiar said as quoted by Antara.

The corruption case against Prajogo has been built upon a report handed over by former secretary-general of the Ministry of Forestry Suripto.

In the report, Suripto charged that Prajogo marked up the size of his timber plantations from 118,000 hectares to 193,500 hectares in the early 1990s in order to obtain a state loan from national reforestation funds which resulted in Rp 331 billion in state losses.

PT Musi was also accused of reneging on its obligation to pay interest on the loan amounting to some Rp 154 billion as of late last year, and manipulating its assets and industry concessions to obtain another Rp 9.91 trillion loan from a consortium of 25 international banks.

The Attorney General's Office claimed it had assigned members of its intelligence staff to monitor Prajogo's recuperation.

Separately, Prajogo's lawyer Denny Kailimang gave assurances that his client would not flee as "Prajogo has many assets here, including the hundreds of employees who work for him."

"My client has repaid Rp 85 billion of the Rp 331 billion from the reforestation funds," Denny said.

Meanwhile in a separate case, the former chief of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) Beddu Amang was summoned on Monday by the Attorney General's Office as a witness in the Hokiarto case. Hokiarto is a suspect in the PT Goro Batara Sakti corruption case which involves some Rp 95.4 billion in state losses.

It was in the Goro case that former president Soeharto's youngest son, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, and his business associate Ricardo Gelael were both given 18-month jail terms.

Bedu has also been named as a suspect in the Goro case and is currently being tried in the South Jakarta District Court. (02)