Two detained, six implicated in Rp 1.7t BNI case
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.