Suspect in BI loan swindle to be tried in absentia

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Attorney General's Office is planning to try in absentia a former director of the now-defunct Bank Surya, Bambang Sutrisno, for allegedly misusing Rp 1.96 trillion in state loans.

Attorney General's Office spokesman Barman Zahir said on Thursday that state prosecutors at the Jakarta Prosecutors' Office would go ahead with the case although the suspect had not been questioned due to his unknown whereabouts.

"The prosecutors will file the case with the Central Jakarta District Court next week," Barman said.

According to Barman, the absence of Bambang Sutrisno's deposition would be replaced with witness testimony and the results of investigators' visits to the suspect's residence on Jl. Kartini VIIc No. 26, Central Jakarta.

"The house is empty ... he was reportedly sighted in Singapore and then Shanghai, China ... we cannot ask for help from Interpol because we don't know where he is," Barman said.

However, he failed to explain why the investigators did not trace Bambang Sutrisno's whereabouts through his lawyers as they had letters of appointment from the suspect.

Bank Surya is one of the 48 commercial banks now being investigated by the Attorney General's Office for loan misuse involving Rp 138.4 trillion in Bank Indonesia liquidity support loans extended in 1998 and 1999.

The emergency loans were supposed to be used only to pay depositors so as to stave off massive runs, but the banks used the money for other purposes, including foreign exchange speculation and loans to affiliated business groups.

According to state prosecutors, Bambang Sutrisno, who was also the vice commissioner of retailer Golden Truly, had established 103 fictitious paper companies to claim loans from Bank Indonesia.

The Rp 1.96 trillion, according to the investigation, went to two companies: PT Data Tekstil Sempurna and PT Usaha Jaya Tiga Batara.

"The investigators found the two companies were fronts and that both belonged to Bambang Sutrisno," Barman said.

The government earlier lost a case against Bank Surya at the pre-trial stage in the Administrative Court, but prosecutors have filed an appeal to the Jakarta High Court.

The trial of Bambang Sutrisno is expected to be the second in absentia trial held against bankers who manipulated Bank Indonesia loans. The first was against former president of BHS Bank Hendra Rahardja, who was sentenced to life in prison for misappropriating Rp 2.6 billion.

The investigators are also questioning witnesses in two other loan abuse cases involving Bank Sewu International and Bank Dana Hutama.

The alleged state losses in the case of Bank Sewu amounted to Rp 323.2 billion, with suspects being Lanny Ongkosubroto and Wiwiek Atmojo, while the case against Bank Dana involved Rp 82.7 billion, with the bank's former director Hadi Purnama Chandra being the suspect.

A witness in the Bank Sewu case, former director of Bank Pembangunan Daerah Hasli Katamsi, told investigators that the two suspects had the power to determine the granting of bank loans, which often exceeded the standard amounts allowed by the central bank.