Probosutedjo a suspect over mark up loan
Probosutedjo a suspect over mark up loan
JAKARTA (JP): Another blow hit former president Soeharto's
family on Monday when his younger half-brother, magnate
Probosutedjo was named a suspect over a mark up loan obtained
from the government's reforestation fund.
"There was some Rp 49 billion (more than US$5 million) marking
up of the government equity and reforestation fund to sustain a
timber estate in South Kalimantan," spokesman to the Attorney
General's Office Muljohardjo told a media conference.
Muljohardjo explained that prosecutors found timber company PT
Menara Hutan Buana, with Probosutedjo as its president, had given
differing data on the area of their estates compared to survey
reports by the Coordinating Body for Survey and National Charting
Development Board.
PT Menara had claimed managing a 71,042 hectare estate in
order to apply for a Rp 144 billion soft loan which it received
in 1994, while the board's survey from 1994/1995 to 1997/1998
period revealed that the company only sustained a 41,212 hectare
estate.
According to assessments made by the Ministry of Forestry and
Plantation, the Development and Finance Control Agency (BPKP) and
state-owned forestry company PT Inhutani, PT Menara only owes Rp
95.4 billion in loans.
The case is one of a number of corruption cases reported by
the forestry ministry as part of its efforts to recover massive
amounts of misused reforestation funds provided to forest
concessionaires for sustaining the estates.
Probosutedjo denied the corruption allegation in December
after he was questioned over the case, saying that he had all the
evidence to prove the validity of PT Menara's data in its
proposal for the soft loan.
Earlier on Monday, state prosecutors announced that Soeharto's
eldest daughter Siti Hardijanti Hastuti Rukmana, or Tutut, is
banned from traveling overseas. The one-year ban took effect on
Saturday.
The ban came a day after she was named a suspect in a graft
concerning a $306 million government project to construct a 320
kilometer long fuel pipeline in Java, which was conducted by
Tutut's company PT Triharsa Bimanusa Tunggal.
Tutut was initially scheduled to be questioned at the Attorney
General's Office on Monday, but it was later rearranged to
Tuesday due to overlapping summonses with different dates for the
questioning.
Spokesman Muljohardjo also said that the authorities have
placed a travel ban over Erry Putra Oudang, a nephew of former
First Lady Tien Soeharto. The travel ban, was imposed starting
Nov. 24, as he was named a suspect in the $113 million marking up
of the Balongan oil refinery project in Indramayu, West Java, in
1989 and 1990.
Erry, together with Hardijanti's younger brother Sigit
Hardjojudanto and businessman Bing Kintamani, allegedly helped
British-based company Foster Wheeler, get the project.
Erry was believed to have received $60 million or four percent
of the price offered by the company.
Probosutedjo, Tutut and Erry added the number of Soeharto's
family members who have so far been netted for crimes. Soeharto
himself is a defendant for a $571 million of corruption, while
his youngest son Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra was convicted in a
$8.07 million graft and is still on the run; and youngest
daughter Siti Hutami Endang Adiningsih, was declared guilty for
failing to report the loss of a firearm she owned. The other
sibling, Bambang Trihatmodjo, was grilled by police earlier this
month over the acquisition of assets of textile company
Kanindotex. (bby/01)