Two U.S. citizens wanted in Bandung over corruption
Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung
The West Java Provincial Prosecutor's Office will send a letter to the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta asking for help in locating two American citizens who have been declared suspects in a Rp 73 billion corruption case at state-owned PT Telkom's branch office in West Java.
Marwan Effendi, the head of the prosecutor's office in Bandung, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that his office had asked the West Java Provincial Prosecutor's Office for help in arresting John G. Voundras and Michael Lee Towne, who are believed to have fled to the United States.
Voundras is the president of PT Ariawest International (AWI), Telkom's partner company in its Indonesian operations, and Towne is the former general manager of Telkom's joint telecommunications operations in West Java.
"We have also asked the U.S. immigration authorities to bar the two suspects from leaving that country," Marwan said.
Towne and Voundras were declared suspects last Friday by the Bandung prosecutor's office. The decision to name the two men as suspects was made based on information gathered from two key witnesses, Budi Hardono and A. Rizali Noor, the deputy general manager and treasurer of the Telkom's joint operation, respectively.
"The two key witnesses gave testimony that they were instructed by Towne, in his capacity as general manager, to draft a disposition letter to transfer the funds to AWI's bank account," Marwan said, adding that the transfer was based on instructions from Voundras on Oct. 5, 2000, and was carried out on Oct. 9, 2000.
According to the witnesses, Voundras instructed Budi to issue a disposition letter to Rizali to transfer the funds to AWI's account at the Chase Manhattan Bank branch in Jakarta to cover expatriate and training costs from 1996 to 1999.
Rizali said he issued three disposition letters to the company's cashier to make out deposits for Rp 15 billion, US$6.56 million and 20.51 million Japanese yen.
Marwan said that according to the witnesses, the transfer of the funds was considered corruption because it was carried out without any receipts or other explanatory notes.
According to the result of an internal audit by Telkom, the company agreed to pay Rp 4 billion rather than the Rp 36 billion proposed by AWI to cover expatriate and training costs.
Marwan said his office would ask the National Police to cooperate with Interpol to arrest the two suspects if the U.S. authorities failed to detain them.
"According to Article 2 of Law No. 31/1999 on corruption, the two could be facing a maximum sentence of death because they are charged with abusing their power to enrich themselves," Marwan said.