Taiwanese man faces jail

JAKARTA (JP): Bogor District Court has been asked to sentence a 47-year-old Taiwanese man to 18 months in jail for counterfeiting his country's currency here.

Prosecutor Junus Saiya told the court on Thursday that James Wang, alias Wang A. Sung, had admitted to financing the printing of at least 8,000 fake 1,000 Taiwan dollar notes in Bogor and distributing them in his country.

One Taiwan dollar equals Rp 265.

Wang hired a local printing firm owned by Sizy Angelina to print the money for him. He was introduced to Sizy by his friend Jansen Johanes, alias David, Junus said.

"He confessed to arranging the printing of fake Taiwan dollar notes here three times -- in July and September 1997 and in January of this year," the prosecutor said.

"He paid a total of Rp 12 million to Sizy, the owner of Himalaya printing firm, for the work," Junus said, adding that he did not know how much David, who supervised the printing, was paid for his labors.

For the first print run, Sizy was asked to print 10,000 fake 1,000 Taiwan dollar notes.

But the printing did not work properly, the prosecutor said.

In September 1997, a further 8,000 notes were ordered, 2,000 of which were of a quality which could be passed of as genuine money, Junus said.

The third print produced 6,000 "perfect" bogus 1,000 Taiwan dollar notes from 8,000 attempts, he said.

The prosecutor said Wang was guilty of violating Article 244 of the Criminal Code on forgery which carries a maximum punishment of 15 years imprisonment.

Sizy and Jansen were tried separately.

The court was adjourned until Monday to allow the defendant's lawyers to prepare their case. (24/emf)