Summarecon objects freezing of its accounts
Summarecon objects freezing of its accounts
JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed property developer PT Summarecon
Agung has reported to the Capital Market Supervisory Agency what
it claims is the unlawful freezing of its accounts at several
banks and the confiscation of its automobiles by the police.
Summarecon stated in the report, a copy of which was obtained
yesterday by The Jakarta Post, that the police's actions were
legally groundless and were not related at all to the criminal
charges leveled against Summarecon's president, Sutjipto Nagaria.
The report was made by Summarecon's lawyers Lontoh & Kailimang
on Wednesday after the police confiscated Summarecon's
automobiles and froze its accounts at several banks following the
investigation of Sutjipto Nagaria on charges of corruption and
the illegal demolition of a building under construction in
Tanjung Duren, West Jakarta.
Sutjipto and several other directors of PT Swaraeka Prasetia
were questioned by the police late last month on charges of
embezzling US$13.12 million and Rp 16 billion in loans from Bank
Rakyat Indonesia.
Lawyer Denny Kailimang stated in the well-documented report
that it was PT Surya Dewata, a shareholder of PT Swaraeka
Prasetia, which borrowed the funds from Bank Rakyat Indonesia for
financing the construction of a shopping center in Tanjung Duren.
"The loans, which were secured with a 29,315 square meter
block of land owned by Surya Dewata in Tanjung Duren, had
entirely been used in 1992 before Summarecon joined Swaraeka
Prasetia as a shareholder in February, 1994," Kailimang asserted.
He added that it was Surya Dewata's director Ali Santoso who
initially invited Summarecon to become a shareholder in the
construction of the shopping center after he failed to complete
the project.
Kailimang recounted that Summarecon joined the project by
putting in $9 million in capital in a new company, PT Swaraeka
Prasetia, set up to own and continue the construction of the
shopping center. Other shareholders of Swaraeka Prasetia were PT
Surya Dewata and PT Atiga Swakerta.
He said the shareholders, however, were embroiled in a dispute
on how to proceed with the project and they later agreed in 1996
to sell the project and its land to repay the loans to Bank
Rakyat Indonesia.
But before the sale took place, Bank Rakyat Indonesia decided
to hand over Swaraeka's debts to the State Receivership Agency in
February 1998, the report added.
"Based on this evidence, we declare that the police freezing
Summarecon's bank accounts and the confiscation of six of its
automobiles are unlawful and in violation of the Criminal Code,"
Kailimang asserted.
He argued that the confiscated automobiles were not in anyway
related to the case against Sutjipto. The freezing of
Summarecon's bank accounts was also legally groundless because
Summarecon was only a shareholder of PT Swaraeka Prasetia and as
a legal entity it could not become a subject in a criminal case.
(vin)