Probest director wanted for fraud
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The Jakarta Police are seeking Burhan Sofian, president director of investment management company PT Probest Internasional Indonesia over a US$4.2 million fraud case, filed by a Bahrain citizen, Osama Fathala.
"We have issued an arrest warrant for him and we have also sent a request to the immigration office to prevent him from leaving the country," city police detectives chief Sr. Comr. Mathius Salempang said on Thursday.
The police will charge Burhan with violating Article 378 of the Criminal Code on fraud. The article carries a maximum penalty of four years imprisonment.
Fathala, who is now in Jakarta, filed the complaint with the police in March.
Salempang said Fathala and his Saudi Arabian business partners, Mohammed Abdulaziz and Alhakami Waleed, had invested the $4.2 million in Probest.
The three sent the money in 21 transfers between June 2002 and October 2002 to Probest's account in Bank Danamon in Jakarta.
Fathala, Abdulaziz and Waleed were introduced to Probest in early 2002 through the company's representative in Bahrain, Billy Nurdin. Billy promoted Probest as an e-business company offering a good return on investment for its members.
Interested by the offer, Abdulaziz and Waleed decided to visit Jakarta in May to meet eight top Probest executives, including Burhan Sofian. In the meeting, Probest offered 10 percent interest on their investment per month, which would be returned to the investors a year later.
Feeling convinced, they decided to join as members. They registered under the name of Waleed Alhakami through Probest website www.pro-best.net.
The three were expecting a windfall profit of $9.45 million by the end of 2003. However, until now, they have yet to receive any of the promised profit.
Salempang said the police have questioned several witnesses including Waleed, Fathala and Abdulaziz. Other witnesses included Heppy Heriyawati, a staff member of Bank Danamon; Joshua Jesusanto, Probest's finance director; Octaviaby Oentarto, Probest's development director; Heribertus Mutaryono, Probest's president commissioner; and Adhe Aurora Gultom, a Probest commissioner.
Before Fathala filed his complaint, Burhan had been found guilty by the Central Jakarta District Court in February of fraud. The closed-door trial, however, declared him not guilty of setting up an illegal bank as charged by the prosecution.
Setting up an illegal bank is a violation of Article 46 of Law No. 10/1998 on banking, which carries a minimum sentence of five years and a maximum of 11 years and a penalty of Rp 10 billion to Rp 200 billion.
Since he was found guilty only of fraud, the court sentenced him to four months and 17 days imprisonment, the time he actually spent in police custody and at prosecutor's detention center from October 2003.
Consequently, after the trial finished, Burhan walked free while Probest was deemed as legal under the law.
Probest was reported of having at least 7,000 members nationwide. The customers material losses are estimated to reach Rp 20 trillion.