Three developer staff nabbed in housing fraud

JAKARTA (JP): Three people have been arrested for their alleged involvement in a conspiracy to cheat 2,000 prospective house buyers in Bekasi, a police officer said yesterday.

They had promoted a housing project and collected the down payments from the people even though they had not bought a single square meter of land or secured a permit to implement the project, said City Police Spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang.

"The police are still looking for another suspect, identified as Alfianto Wijaya. He is the head of the company which is supposed to run the project," Aritonang said.

Among the suspects is A. Thayib D, the head of the Jakarta branch of the Cooperatives Center for Private Employees (Puskopkar). He was arrested Tuesday at his office.

The other two are Puskopkar's housing division manager, Nenny Hisban, and her husband Hariyanto DJ, who were arrested yesterday at their house in South Jakarta.

Aritonang said Hariyanto worked at PT Mutiaranusa Medikapratama, a developer company owned by Alfianto.

"According to the police's preliminary investigation, Nenny is alleged to be the mastermind behind the Rp 2 billion (US$615,384) housing scam," Aritonang said.

Nenny was believed to have encouraged her boss Thayib to choose the developer company in which her husband worked to run the project.

"Thayib was allegedly involved in the conspiracy by appointing Alfianto's company as the developer of the project, even though he knew that Alfianto did not have the money to build the houses," Aritonang said.

"They also had not obtained either the location or provisional licenses, which are compulsory for companies planning to build houses."

The suspects had not bought any land in Bekasi. They had promoted the housing project, called the Bekasi Karya Sejahtera, since 1994 to members of cooperatives at many state owned and privately run companies and institutions here.

"They promised to members of the 18 employee cooperatives that the houses would be ready 12 months after they paid the down payment of between Rp 1 million and Rp 3 million," he said.

The collected down payments were not used to finance the project, but were transferred to the suspects' own bank accounts instead, he said.

About 2,000 people, including employees of the Ministry of Transmigration, the National Family Planning Board, and companies which produce Aqua mineral water and Coca Cola soft drinks, had ordered the houses and made the down payments.

A source at the employees cooperative at a government body told The Jakarta Post Tuesday that representatives of the 18 cooperatives had tried to negotiate an end to the dispute with Puskopkar but to no avail.

He said the cooperatives initially thought that Puskopkar delayed the project because it was having difficulties choosing a suitable developer for the project.

"But it's been two years since some 200 employees in our office were given promises that the houses would be developed soon," he said.

He said that most of the houses to be built in the Setu area were of the 21-square-meter type.

Aritonang said the cooperative victims had reported the suspects to the police in June.

He said bank notices of the down payments, lists of buyers, and other documents had been confiscated as evidence in the case.

"The police are now waiting for the Ministry of Finance to allow them to investigate the suspects' bank accounts," Aritonang said.

He said the three arrested suspects had violated Articles 378 and 55 of the Criminal Code on fraud and false promises respectively.

If found guilty, each could face a maximum of four years imprisonment. (cst)