Three developer staff nabbed in housing fraud

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)