Woman gets three years for graft
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A former bank employee was sentenced on Monday to three years in jail for embezzlement that caused the state to indirectly suffer financial losses of Rp 1.54 billion (US$154,000).
The South Jakarta District Court also ordered defendant Ria Hanim Indriati, a former customer service employee of state Bank Mandiri, to return the misappropriated money to the state and fined her Rp 50 million.
The high school graduate, who refused to use lawyers, bowed her head after hearing the verdict and cried.
According to the panel of judges, presided over by Hesmu Purwanto, with members Syamsul Ali and Effendy, the defendant had embezzled the money of six depositors.
The case came to light after Tumpal Siahaan reported to the bank at Plaza Mandiri on Jl. Sudirman, Central Jakarta, on Oct. 16, 2000, that had he lost two fixed deposit certificates.
The report was handled by Erlina Irawati, a customer service employee who was filling in for Ria, who was off that day.
Erlina checked with the computer and found Tumpal's deposit of Rp 100 million, but she could not find the other deposit amounting to Rp 200 million.
Further investigation found that Ria had embezzled not only Tumpal's money, but also the deposits of five other customers.
Ria had earlier told the court that she would return the embezzled money. However, she had spent the money on a car and had given the rest to her parents and her husband.
The fact that Ria failed to return the money did not help her case, according to the court. The sentence term equaled the sentence requested by the prosecutors.
The judges also ordered Ria, currently held in Pondok Bambu Women's Penitentiary in East Jakarta, to remain in jail.
Last week, the Central Jakarta District Court sentenced central bank governor Sjahril Sabirin to three years in jail for corruption, which caused the state Rp 904 billion in losses.
But the judges claimed that they could not send Sjahril to jail because he was not in detention when the verdict was read.
In another corruption case, the West Jakarta District Court gave David Nusa Wijaya of the now-defunct Bank Umum Servitia a one-year jail term for misusing Rp 1.27 trillion of Bank Indonesia liquidity support (BLBI).
David, who stated that he would appeal to a higher court, has not been detained either.