The Jakarta Globe, February 4, 2014.
Jakarta. A police general who was allegedly conned out of Rp 800 million ($65,600) by a lower-ranking colleague was the one who pressed charges against the latter, police revealed on Tuesday.
A source at the National Police’s detectives unit said that the criminal complaint brought against Sr. Comr. Conny Tri Restyoko, the former Surabaya Police chief, was filed by Brig. Gen. Wilmar Marpaung, the head of operations at the detectives unit.
“Wilmar lost Rp 800 million after initially being persuaded by Conny to invest in the latter’s company providing vehicle license registration renewal services,” the source told Jakarta Globe on condition of anonymity.
“Conny promised Wilmar a profit, but he broke the promise.”
Conny was last month named a suspect for fraud and embezzlement, for which he could face up to four years in prison if convicted.
His criminal status was never publicly announced by the police, and only spotted by reporters at the National Police headquarters in South Jakarta last month who happened to recognize his name on a scrolling ticker of newly named suspects displayed at the building.
The source said that Conny had denied ripping off Wilmar and an undisclosed number of other colleagues in the force, but that he had been conned by his own business partner.
“But of course we don’t believe him because it’s obvious that he used the money to fund his own lavish lifestyle, including paying for a Rubicon,” the source said, referring to a variant of the Jeep Wrangler SUV that retails in Jakarta from Rp 945 million.
A colleague of Conny’s, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said that since he allegedly absconded with the money, Conny rarely showed up at work at the detectives unit, where he was assigned to the analysis bureau.
“He sort of disappeared just like that. That’s why he was placed on the wanted list,” the officer said.
“Most of those who got scammed were officers from his previous posting, in the internal affairs unit.”
Police had previously confirmed that at least three officers had accused Conny of stealing a combined Rp 1.4 billion from them, but declined to name them. More are expected to come forward, investigators said.
Comr. Gen. Suhardi Alius, the chief of detectives, vowed last week that his office would not try to cover for Conny.
“We have no tolerance for officers who act like this. We will pursue this case thoroughly,” he said on Jan. 30.
However, he acknowledged that police had not yet arrested Conny because the paperwork was not yet complete.
Suhardi said Conny was suspected of being involved in “multiple scams” during his various postings throughout the country.
(Tjonge it looks as if Conny is for the chop, than he'll be just con, a case of chickens coming home to roost?) siK
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di 4 feb 2014 - 22:12