Switzerland, HK to help recoup assets

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.