QSAR failure indicates scam, involving big names

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.