QSAR failure indicates scam, involving big names

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Sukabumi

The failure of PT Qurnia Subur Alam Raya (QSAR) president director Ramli Araby to repay investors' funds appears to be just the tip of an iceberg of a business scam involving politically well-placed individuals.

According to residents of Sukabumi, West Java, where Ramli set up the headquarters of his agribusiness company, QSAR was far from being a professional company.

An official of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN) Sukabumi Chapter told The Jakarta Post on Sunday that QSAR sold its farm produce to traditional markets and sidewalk traders, not to various food businesses as claimed.

"PT QSAR was not involved in an industrial company as it used to claim because it didn't supply crops to various food processors both domestic and international," local KADIN chairman Andri Setiawan said on Sunday.

Meanwhile, a member of QSAR's Investor Communications Forum (FKI) met Ramli at his cell on Sunday and held talks about the strange events surrounding his business.

On condition of anonymity, he told the Post that Ramli admitted that he didn't have any money to repay thousands of investors, but failed to explain how he had spent some Rp 460 billion collected from some 6,800 investors.

"Pak Ramli also asked me why he was being detained. He had done so many things for the government," he said.

He called on the police to investigate thoroughly where the money had been spent.

"I don't care whether the money went to the government, the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), or to other politicians; we must be open about this case," he was quick to add.

Andri said QSAR ran its activities conventionally, involving local communities that lacked business experience.

"It sold tomatoes, red peppers or eggplants to traditional markets around the city and other cities near to Sukabumi," Andri said.

Vice President Hamzah Haz has defended the company's reputation ever since news of its collapse broke out last month, insisting that QSAR was an export-oriented agribusiness company that had contributed millions of U.S. dollars in foreign reserves to the country.

He said QSAR had made 155 exports worth hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars.

But a local villager who once served as a truck driver for the company said that he never carried PT QSAR's farm production to Tanjung Priok port in North Jakarta nor loaded the crops to ships sailing abroad, despite the company's claim to Vice President Hamzah Haz it was exporting its products.

"Pak Wapres (Hamzah) once came to this place, noting the planned exports of PT QSAR's farm production. I was ordered by the company leaders to turn the trucks back to several markets here, instead of transporting the goods to Tanjung Priok," he said.

Hamzah, who once made a visit to the company, located at Kadudampit village in Sukabumi, even put forward the idea of taking over the bankrupt company because it was "a legitimate business that needed the government's help."

Besides Hamzah, other officials who made a visit to the company included People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais, Tosari Widjaja, a deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, and several military generals.

According to Andri, the business was not attractive to people in Sukabumi regency because Ramli Araby was not familiar there.

Ramli, along with six other company directors, Endjang Muhamad, Meliana, Mohamad Kamal, Warman Pasawahan, Hendra Supriatn and Yandi Sofiandi, are currently being detained at a Sukabumi police cells.

Ramlan Baskara, also a company director and Ramli's younger brother, surrendered to the police on Saturday night.

According to West Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Sudirman Ali, Ramli and other company directors had violated banking law by collecting public funds irregularly and the Criminal Code by embezzling public funds.

The violations carry a maximum sentence of six years in jail.

According to Kadudampit residents, Ramli is an Acehnese who moved to the village following a worsening situation in the troubled province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam 1980s.

Since PT QSAR set up in 1997, the company had developed its farming areas to several villages in Sukabumi, including Kadudampit, Kebonpedes, Gunung Jaya, and Sukamanis.

"None of these directors was well-educated as they were villagers just like us," Iyep Badri, head of Kadudampit village, said.