Tansil enjoyed red-letter facility at 3 other banks
JAKARTA (JP): Eddy Tansil, the businessman at the center of the Rp 1.3 trillion (US$620 million) loan scandal at Bapindo, said yesterday that he enjoyed similar treatment from three other state banks -- Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), Bank Bumi Daya (BBD) and Bank Dagang Negara (BDN).
Tansil told a court hearing that he thought the conversion of his letters of credit by Bapindo in his favor was a normal practice in Indonesian banking -- given that he had been granted similar treatment at the other three state banks previously.
The conversion of the letters of credit, from usance to red- letters, allowed Tansil to cash in on the loans intended to pay for equipment he was importing from South Korea and China for his giant petrochemical project in Cilegon, West Java.
Government prosecutors said the conversion, which they said Tansil secured with the help of Bapindo insiders, allowed the owner of the Golden Key Group to siphon off a total of $448 million in loans and facility between 1989 and 1993. In the process, he brought Bapindo on the verge of bankruptcy.
The prosecutors last week urged the Central Jakarta District Court to indict him for corruption and demanded that he be jailed for life.
Tansil, reading his own prepared closing argument, expressed his astonishment yesterday as to why he is only being accused of swindling money from Bapindo, and not from the other three banks.
He said two of his Golden Key companies, PT. Hamparan Rejeki and PT. Dinamika Era Jaya were financed by loans from Bank BNI, BBD and BDN which also permitted similar conversion. Converting usance letters of credit to red-letters "is neither new nor rare in banking. You can check with the other banks," he said.
Banking experts however said that such a conversion carries a high risk for the bank concerned and should therefore be used only rarely.
Suggestion
Tansil insisted again yesterday that he would have been able to complete the petrochemical project and make good on all his Bapindo loans if he had not been arrested in February.
Tansil also defended Maman Suparman, formerly deputy manager of Bapindo's Jakarta branch who dealt with his accounts, saying that he should not be blamed for the conversions.
Maman was sentenced to nine years in jail for his role in the loan scandal early this month.
Tansil said he chose Bapindo to finance his petrochemical project at the suggestion of Sudomo, then minister of political affairs and security, who also gave him a letter of reference in support of his loan applications.
Sudomo is now the chairman of the Supreme Advisory Council.
He said that he was willing to pay back every cent that he had borrowed from Bapindo by offering the government to take over the eight companies in the Golden Key Group.
His lawyers said his assets are worth Rp 1.5 trillion.
Tansil admitted that he had cashed in on the loans from Bapindo simply to make the most of an idle fund pending the arrival of the equipment he ordered from overseas.
He said he deposited some of the funds with other banks in Indonesia to generate interest earnings. "If I had dishonorable intentions I would have saved the money abroad." (05)