Rp 33 billion scandal rocks Danamon in Medan

Rp 33 billion scandal rocks Danamon in Medan

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan, North Sumatra

Another billion-rupiah bank scandal has again rocked the country,
raising questions about the security of financial transactions
and the banking system in the country.

After the Bank BNI scandal last year, the management of
private bank PT Bank Danamon disclosed on Friday a scandal that
recently hit its Medan branch to the tune of Rp 33 billion
(US$4,125,000).

"Six people are being questioned by the police," said
Christine Damanik, the spokeswoman of the bank, in a press
conference in Medan. The press conference was also attended by
local police investigators.

The people in question were identified by the their initials
as US, the head teller at the bank's Medan branch, and five
outsiders, AN, HT, RID, WHA and MHA.

Sr. Comr. Satria Hari Prasetya, the chief of North Sumatra
Police detectives, said that the police had questioned them and
they had been named suspects.

The suspects admitted that they had used part of the money for
gambling and others for multilevel marketing trading, said
Satria. US, in particular, admitted that he used part of the
money to pay back debts to certain parties, after he had lost
money to them through gambling.

US told police investigators that the money had been embezzled
in stages beginning seven months ago.

Satria said that the scandal was uncovered after US walked out
of the bank on Tuesday, bringing a bag which other employees in
the bank office in Medan suspected contained a large amount of
cash. The employees smelled something fishy by his manner and
reported it to their boss in the office.

Their superior examined the transaction flow in the bank later
on Tuesday night and found Rp 3 billion difference between the
total amount of transactions that day recorded in the computer,
with the total cash counted by the bank officials that night.
They reported the crime to the police, and the police quickly
apprehended US and other suspects.

The police were able recover some Rp 14 billion of money from
the suspects, some Rp 3 billion of the total Rp 14 billion was in
the form of cash, while the remaining Rp 11 billion was in the
form of bank accounts in Bank Danamon, Bank BCA and Bank Kesawan.

These accounts have been frozen. Satria said that the suspects
could be charged with committing banking fraud that carries a
sentence of between five and 15 years in jail.

Silvanus, another official at Bank Danamon, alleged that other
employees in the bank might be involved in the scandal, because
the cash count was done not only by the head teller but also by
others, including, his staff.

The bank scandal in Medan was the third after two other bank
scandals that rocked Bank BNI. Last year, the state-owned Bank
BNI lost Rp 1.7 trillion (US$200 million) due to fraud that
involved its employees. The scandal involved the BNI branch in
Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, which channeled export loans
without undertaking proper appraisals to the Gramarindo Group and
the Petindo Group in order to finance the export of commodities
to the Congo and Kenya. The exporting companies supported their
loan requests with bogus letters of credit allegedly issued by
banks in Kenya, Switzerland and the Cook Islands as collateral.
The exports never materialized, hence BNI lost the money.

Another smaller scandal hit the bank early this year, involved
a BNI branch in Magelang, Central Java, which cost the bank Rp 24
billion (US$2.8 million).