Woman gets three years for graft
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.