Subsidiary bankers of BI named suspects

JAKARTA (JP): The Attorney General's Office named on Monday two foreign based bankers suspects for causing a loss of US$1 billion to Bank Indonesia by violating the bank's prudential principal in extending credit.

Spokesman Yushar Yahya claimed that the two were responsible for financing creditors through two subsidiaries of Bank Indonesia, namely Amsterdam-based N.V. Indover Bank and the latter's affiliated Hong Kong-based Indover Asia Ltd.

The money distributed by the two banks came from, among other sources, Bank Indonesia's foreign exchange reserves.

Yushar said the two suspects, who were top executives at the two banks at the time, had disbursed loans without properly examining the lenders' capability to repay the loans.

"There were also irregularities in several loan agreements where we found there was intervention from executives of Bank Indonesia itself from 1993 to 1998 when the alleged corruption took place," Yushar said.

He refused to reveal the name of the Bank Indonesia executives.

The two suspects were only identified by their initials. The first, A.S. SPS, is a foreigner and former president director of Indover Bank, while the second is Indonesian P.G. who was once managing director of Indover Asia in Hong Kong.

Yushar claimed the two were currently in Jakarta.

The case is being handled by Attorney General's Office's Director of Prosecution Muchtar Arifin, aided by Budiman Rahardjo, Fritz Filly and Telly Tumondo. (bby)