Prosecutors receive Danasonic dossiers

JAKARTA (JP): City police have handed over the dossiers on the controversial Danasonic savings scheme to the prosecutors' office, along with an elderly couple known as executives of a firm which ran the business.

"We've also been informed by the prosecutors office that the dossiers will soon be handed to the court, to try the two suspects on charges of fraud and forgery," head of the economic crime unit of city police, Lt. Col. Aryanto Sutadi, told reporters yesterday.

According to Aryanto, the dossiers equipped with adequate evidence, including a check account worth Rp 640 million (US$380,000), and strong witnesses, were accepted by the prosecutors' office.

PT Saptamitra Ekakarya executives, identified as Sindi Husain and his wife Anneke Kolondam, who were previously detained at city police headquarters, are now being held at the prosecutors' office.

Aryanto said police have urged that the suspects be charged with violating at least four rules, covering document forgery, fraud, operating a business with no legal permits and running a lottery business without permission from the related agencies, as required by the existing laws.

The couple could face up to five years' imprisonment if found guilty.

Sindi and his wife, respectively commissioner and president of PT Saptamitra, are believed to have earned billions of rupiah during the three-year operation of their business throughout the country. Police arrested them and closed their activities in June, in response to mounting public concern over the massive growth of the business.

Aryanto said that at least eight witnesses have been listed in the dossiers to give their evidence.

"They include three participants of the scheme and representatives from banks and social affairs, trade and post offices," the officer said.

Police have frozen PT Saptamitra Ekakarya funds totaling Rp 640 million, sent in by new members of the scheme at a post office and three banks, including the state-owned BRI, in the city.

Earlier, Aryanto said that the State Administrative Court has already "ruled in our favor", that the savings scheme, locally known as Arisan Danasonic, is a form of gambling, which is illegal.

Arisan is an Indonesian word for a periodic gathering of a group of people to draw lots for an aggregate sum of money contributed by the group's members.

Unlike the traditional arisan system, the Danasonic scheme required new members to pay a Rp 11,000 administration fee to the organizer and another Rp 10,000 to each of the two other participants listed on a coupon.

New members were promised that they could receive up to Rp 10 million if they actively sold coupons to other people who were, in turn, expected to become actively involved in the savings plan.

Before the police intervened, Sindi claimed that about 500,000 people were registered as members of the scheme nationwide.

Police estimate that the actual number of participants in the Danasonic scheme could swell to about 10 million people nationwide, most of whom are said to live in remote areas.

"We know that there are still a number of similar arisan saving schemes in the city," Aryanto said. "But we need strong support from the public if they really want to stop such illegal activities."

According to Aryanto, police have found that it is not an easy task to close such an activity, and arrest the executives, without support from the public.

"Many of the scheme's participants are unwilling to report the case to the police, or to inform the media about the truth of the situation," he said. (bsr)