Two of 16 suspects in high-profile BNI scandal tried
M. Taufiqurrahman and P.C. Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The high-profile state Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) trial began on Monday at the South Jakarta District Court, with two bank officials facing corruption charges in a case that caused Rp 1.7 trillion (US$200 million) in state losses.
BNI Kebayoran Baru branch head Koesadiyono and Foreign Customers Division head Edy Santoso stand accused of violating Law No. 31/1999 and Law No. 3/1977 on corruption. The pair are alleged to have disbursed export credits to companies without proper assessments or checks.
The defendants -- two of 16 suspects implicated in the high- profile graft case -- could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.
Both were also charged under Law No. 10/1998 on banking and Law No. 15/2002 on money laundering.
In the indictment, prosecutor Mukri A. said the defendants approved export credits to eight subsidiaries of the Gramarindo Group and the Petindo Group with bogus letters of credit (L/Cs) issued by banks in Kenya, Switzerland and the Cook Islands as collateral.
The companies claimed that they were exporting commodities to the Republic of Congo and Kenya. Bills attached to the L/Cs were allegedly fraudulent as the goods were never exported. However, the export loans had already been channeled.
PT Gramarindo Mega Indonesia, PT Metrantara and PT Maqnetique Usaha Esa Indonesia allegedly received the money from BNI from 2002 through 2003.
Police have named three BNI officials and 13 employees of the three companies as suspects in the scandal.
The main suspect, Maria Pauliene Lumowa, is living in Singapore, which does not have an extradition treaty with Indonesia.
There have also been rumors that some of Golkar's presidential hopefuls received a share of the funds. The candidates have denied receiving any money from the scam.
After hearing the indictment, presiding judge Soedarto adjourned the trial until April 19, at which time the court will hear from the defense.
In a related development, investigators at National Police Headquarters are still questioning the younger brother of Adrian Waworuntu, another key suspect in the BNI case, over his possible involvement in the scam.
Police have declined to give the name of the brother, who owns Adiyta Finance, a vehicle used by the Gramarindo Group to finance acquisitions by a number of its subsidiaries.
The director of the National Police's white-collar crime unit, Brig. Gen. Ismoko, said this new line of questioning began after receiving additional information from Adrian.
"The new evidence we discovered was an account number belonging to Aditya Finance. It will be of great importance in finding out where the money went," he said.
Ismoko also said the police had completed the dossiers on Adrian and Haris Is Hartono, an employee of Gramarindo subsidiary PT Mahesa, and would soon submit them to prosecutors.
Police are still awaiting the results of tests to authenticate several documents, including a number of L/Cs produced by PT Tri Rannu Caraka director Jeffry Basso and PT Bassomindo director Yudi Basso, Ismoko said.