Supreme Court upholds Bapindo case verdicts

JAKARTA (JP): The Supreme Court is upholding all verdicts passed by lower courts against a businessman and four bankers for the massive loan scandal that nearly brought state-owned Bank Pembangunan Indonesia (Bapindo) to its knees.

Justice Adi Andojo Soetjipto who presided over the hearings on the five cases told reporters on Friday that the Supreme Court is convinced that the five men are guilty and that the punishment meted out by a district court, and later reaffirmed by the Jakarta High Court, were appropriate.

"We have ruled to reject the appeals filed by the defendants," Adi told reporters at his office.

The businessman at the center of the Bapindo loan scandal is Eddy Tansil, the owner of the Golden Key Group. Tansil was found guilty by the district court of siphoning off over Rp 1.3 trillion ($620 million) in loans from the state bank between 1989 and 1994.

He was eventually sentenced to 20 years imprisonment and ordered to pay the government Rp 500 billion in restitution. A fine of Rp 30 million was also imposed.

The four directors of the bank convicted of complicity in the scam also saw their prison sentences confirmed by the Supreme Court. Towil Heryoto received eight years imprisonment, Subekti Ismaun and Sjahrizal each got six years, and Bambang Kuntjoro received four years.

Subekti and Towil were presidents of the bank when the loans were made.

Tansil's main defense, that he had not yet defaulted on the loans because they were not due for repayment when he was arrested in February 1994, had been dismissed at the district court level.

The main defense premise of the four bankers, that Tansil came with a letter of recommendation from Navy Admiral (ret.) Sudomo, at the time a powerful figure in the cabinet as coordinating minister for political affairs and security, also was considered invalid.

The Supreme Court last month also upheld the lower courts' verdicts against Maman Suparman, a junior executive of Bapindo's Jakarta branch. Maman, the man who extended the loans to Tansil, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment. (imn)