Two detained, six implicated in Rp 1.7t BNI case

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Two high-ranking bank officers at Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) have been detained by the police while six others have been banned from traveling abroad due to suspicion of involvement in the issuance of 41 fictitious letters of credit (L/Cs) totaling Rp 1.7 trillion (US$200 million).

National Police detectives deputy chief Insp. Gen. Suyitno Landung D. said on Friday at the police headquarters that the two had been detained in mid-October.

The two suspects are Edy Santoso, head of foreign customer service at BNI and Koesadiyuwono, manager of BNI's Kebayoran Baru branch in South Jakarta.

Suyitno said 41 L/Cs were being investigated, although eight of them appeared to have been paid.

"We are not sure yet if the total losses reach Rp 1.7 trillion."

He declined to reveal the names of the six suspects banned from overseas travel, but a two-star police general hinted that they were "end users of the L/Cs".

National Police spokesman Insp. Basyir Barmawi said the police had been grilling five witnesses, who he identified only as Sy, Dk, Sw, Ew and Ah.

"They are all officials at the bank whose ranks are, among others, foreign customer manager, foreign customer supervisor and members of the bank's internal supervisory team," he said.

Edy Santoso's lawyer, Herman Kadir, said his client had not violated any bank procedures when issuing the L/Cs.

"The final process (of the issuance of the L/Cs) is in the hands of the head of the branch. In the payment process (of L/Cs), there was no problem during the correspondence (between the bank that issued the L/Cs and those who applied for the L/Cs) and after the money was wired through, the process was complete. Based on such procedures, my client did nothing wrong," he said.

Herman said his client issued only seven L/Cs worth Rp 1.7 trillion to seven subsidiaries under private company Gramarindo Group belonging to businessman Adrian Herling Woworuntu and businesswoman Maria Pauline Lumowa.

"From the seven L/Cs, only one worth Rp 600 billion was settled while the remaining Rp 1.1 trillion still hasn't been paid," said Herman.

His explanation differed from the version of the police, who said the number of issued L/Cs was 41 against his seven.

"Police will summon those thought to have knowledge about the issuance of the L/Cs, including businessmen linked to the case," said Basyir.

Police sources said that businessman Jhon Hamenda of the Pertindo Perkasa Group was also implicated in the case.

Basyir denied rumors that the police were being tightlipped about the case because some officers had been bribed to stop the investigation.

"Not every development in our investigation is accessible to the public," he said.