Switzerland, HK to help recoup assets

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The authorities in Hong Kong and Switzerland have agreed to help the government of Indonesia recoup funds and other liquid assets stashed by the country's graft suspects in overseas banks.

"Basically, the Swiss government is ready to return fully the assets, while in the case of Hong Kong we need to hold further talks," said Basrief Arief, who recently led a team to visit the Hong Kong and Switzerland in a bid to track down the assets of graft suspects.

Basrief, who is also a deputy of the attorney general, said that the Hong Kong police had demanded a 20 percent administration fee for the assets to be returned to Indonesia, while the remaining 80 percent would be divided equally.

He said that it was difficult to accommodate the demand as the state had suffered dearly from the rampant graft activities in the country.

Team member Zulkarnaen Yunus said that during talks with the Hong Kong justice department, there was no discussion on the sharing of the confiscated assets.

Zulkarnaen, who is also the director general of legal administration at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, said that the Swiss authorities initially also made the same demands, but after further negotiation, they finally agreed to return the assets in full to Indonesia.

Many embezzlers in Indonesia have stashed their ill-gotten wealth in banks in Hong Kong and Switzerland, assuming that the tough banking secrecy code in the two foreign countries would make it difficult to trace the assets and recover them. Some of the corrupt suspects have also fled the country to avoid prosecution. The government has planned to provide legal immunity to certain graft suspects if they cooperate with law enforcers in uncovering bigger graft cases.

The current administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has made the drive against corruption a top agenda.

Basrief said that the Swiss authorities have expressed their commitment to help Indonesia in recovering the ill-gotten wealth of embezzlers.

He said that Switzerland had frozen since July of this year bank accounts belonging to two Indonesians identified as IS and EN, graft suspects in the Bank Global fiasco.

According to the team, graft suspect Hendra Rahardja had assets worth about $9.3 billion, excluding property assets which until now have not been located.