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)