6 Seized Over Elnusa’s Lost Billions in Bank Fraud.
In yet another banking scandal, the Jakarta Police said they arrested six people, including a Bank Mega manager, in a Rp 111 billion ($12.9 million) embezzlement case involving oil services company Elnusa.
Authorities said on Sunday that Santun Nainggolan, Elnusa’s finance director, was detained on Tuesday for allegedly forging documents to withdraw billions of rupiah from the company’s account at the Bank Mega Jababeka-Cikarang branch.
“The suspect faked the signature of Elnusa’s president director,” said Adj. Sr. Comr. Arismunandar, chief of the police’s financial crimes unit.
Officials confiscated Rp 2 billion in rupiah, $34,400 and five cars — including a Hummer sport utility vehicle — from Santun.
Police said that Santun claimed he would invest the withdrawn funds in Discovery, an asset management firm, but he ended up pocketing most of the money and distributing the rest to others.
Officers arrested five accomplices who allegedly received a cut, identified as I.H.B., the bank branch’s manager; A.J., a Discovery commissioner; Discovery directors I.L. and R.L.; and an unidentified suspect called Z.
Arismunandar said R.L. was on the police’s wanted list for a separate charge of siphoning away Aceh’s provincial budget from a Bank Mandiri account in Jelambar, West Jakarta.
Elnusa confirmed that it had deposited Rp 161 billion in the Bank Mega account, which it opened in September 2009.
Heru Samodra, the firm’s corporate secretary, said only Rp 50 billion had been legally cashed out by the company’s directors since that time.
Suharyanto, Elnusa’s president director, said on Sunday that after the company was notified about the case, it found the remaining Rp 111 billion had been completely drained.
“We checked with the Bank Mega branch on April 19 and they said the money had been withdrawn, but it was without our permission,” he said.
“We are questioning Bank Mega’s procedures that allowed the withdrawal of the money without our confirmation.”
He said the case would not affect the firm’s operations, adding that the funds were initially used for buffer stock.
( the JG)
zo 24 apr 2011 - 20:58