Roman threatens to sue AGO over Manulife case

Roman threatens to sue AGO over Manulife case

JAKARTA (JP): The British Virgin Island-based Roman Gold
Assets plans to sue the Attorney General's Office if it stopped
its investigation into a share sale dispute against insurance
company PT Asuransi Jiwa Manulife Indonesia (AJMI), a lawyer
representing Roman said on Wednesday.

Roman's legal representative Syamsul Arief said his client
hoped the police would continue to investigate the case.

"But if the Attorney General's Office issues the order to stop
the investigation, we will sue them in the lower court," Syamsul
said.

The daily Bisnis Indonesia on Tuesday quoted Attorney General
Marzuki Darusman as saying that his office would most likely
order the police to stop its investigation into the case due to
lack of evidence.

His office has reportedly rejected the police's dossiers on
the case a number of times as detectives had failed to gather
convincing evidence against AJMI.

"Marzuki is wrong, evidence against Manulife is so obvious,"
Syamsul argued.

Last year, Roman filed criminal charges against AJMI, accusing
the latter of duplicating its shares to allow its Canadian parent
company Manufacturers Life Insurance (Manulife) to acquire a 40
percent stake in AJMI.

Manulife bought AJMI's 40 percent stake for Rp 170 billion
(about US$14.2 million) from PT Dharmala Sakti Sejahtera through
a public auction. PT Dharmala was declared bankrupt by the
Central Jakarta Commercial Court in June last year.

The proceeds of the sale were to be used to repay loans to
Dharmala's creditors, including the Indonesian Bank Restructuring
Agency (IBRA).

Roman, however, claimed that it was the rightful owner of
Dharmala's 40 percent stake in AJMI, saying it owned AJMI's
original shares.

The British Virgin Island company said it had purchased the
shares based on a power of attorney signed by Dharmala's former
president in 1996.

Syamsul questioned why the court went ahead with the sales of
AJMI's shares, after knowing there existed two sets of the same
shares.

"The court receiver should know that one of the two sets of
shares must have been a fake," he said.

"Until now, there is no clear explanation from the police as
to which of these shares are genuine."

He said Roman's shares of AJMI were issued by AJMI and had
belonged to Dharmala's former president Suyanto Gondokusumo.

Suyanto then pledged his shares in AJMI to a number of firms
before Roman purchased them from a Singapore-based company a week
ahead of Manulife's transaction, he explained.

But Manulife suspected that Roman's transactions had been back
dated, and were conducted by paper companies established to
facilitate such dubious transactions.

"What we want is for the court to cancel the share sale so
that things are back to how they were before the sale," Syamsul
said.

Undeterred by growing international pressure behind the
Manulife case, he said he was confident the case would be
resolved in Roman's favor.

Foreign lenders have used the Manulife case to exemplify the
slow progress in Indonesia's struggle for legal reforms.

They said a working bankruptcy court was vital in attracting
badly needed foreign investment.

But seeing the difficulties creditors are facing when bringing
debtors to bankruptcy, foreign investors are skeptical of
Indonesia's legal system.

According to Manulife managing director Chris Bendl, a
visiting team of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had met
with him earlier this month to discuss the Manulife case.

During the meeting, Bendl said the IMF said that its next
letter of intent (LoI) might include requirements to improve
Indonesia's legal system.

The LoI contains a set of economic reform targets for
Indonesia to achieve before being eligible to receive the fund's
financial aids.

Recent developments show that some progress in the Manulife
case has been made.

Last week, the police announced it had named Dharmala's
Suyanto as a suspect in the Manulife case.

Suyanto's lawyer John Waliring, however, said his client was
not available for police questioning.

He said since last year, Suyanto had been undergoing
psychiatric treatment in a Singapore hospital.

In Hong Kong, Bendl said, police had issued an arrest warrant
for the president of a local company, which managed the various
paper companies involved in the transaction of AJMI's
shares.(bkm)