JAKARTA GLOBE: News / National / Article : January 16, 2009
After blowing hundreds of thousands of dollars in a bungled bid to seize 36 million euros ($47.3 million) in an overseas bank account belonging to Hutomo “Tommy” Mandala Putra, the Attorney General’s Office is now struggling to reclaim more than $15 million allegedly illegally stashed by two other Indonesians in Swiss bank accounts.
Jakarta has requested that the Swiss government freeze an account containing $9.9 million deposited by Irawan Salim, who fled justice in late 2004 after being implicated in a fraudulent mutual fund business while he served as director of Bank Global, according to documents released by the AGO and obtained by the Jakarta Globe.
However, there is a major stumbling block — Irawan has not been convicted of any crimes in Indonesian courts.
Prosecutors are also pursuing $5.2 million stashed in an account belonging to Eduard Cornelis William Neloe, who is serving 10 years in jail for corruption he engaged in while serving as president director of state-run Bank Mandiri, the document says.
Neloe has not paid the Rp 500 million fine that was imposed along with the jail term. He has repeatedly denied owning secret bank accounts in Switzerland.
The AGO is working closely with the Australian government on the extradition of convicted embezzler Adrian Kiki Ariawan, who allegedly stole Rp 1.5 trillion from the central bank’s bailout funds in the wake of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.
However, the AGO will not be able to seek the return of any of his Australian assets — the values of which are unknown — because under Australian law, such cases must be resolved within six years of legal action being filed. “In the case of Adrian Kiki, the statute of limitation has already been met,” the AGO document says.
Adrian, the former director of Bank Surya, was convicted in absentia in 2002 of embezzlement and sentenced to life in jail. He was arrested in Perth, Australia, on Nov. 28 and has since been in detention.
The embezzlement case in Bank Surya also involved former commissioner Bambang Sutrisno, who remains at large.
The Australian government has offered to help to repatriate $398,478 belonging to another embezzler, fugitive Hendra Rahardja, who died of natural causes in Australia in 2003 during his run from a life sentence meted out by an Indonesian court.
But the procedures would be very complicated because the funds had been transferred to Hong Kong.
Hendra, the former owner of now-defunct Bank Harapan Sentosa, and his son, Eko Edy Putranto, were convicted in absentia in 2002. Eko was sentenced to 20 years in jail, but his whereabouts are still unknown.
Adrian, Bambang and Eko are among 15 convicts and suspects who are wanted for various embezzlement cases since the Suharto era.
The other 12 include Edy Tansil, Sudjiono Timan, Samadikun Hartono, Paulina Maria Lomuwa, Rico Hendrawan, Hendra Lee, Robert Dale Kutchen, Irawan Salim, Amri Irawan, Lisa Evianti Imam, Hendra Liem and Budiyanto.
The government in 2004 set up a special team to track down graft fugitives, now led by deputy attorney general Muchtar Arifin, which has arrested seven convicts and suspects.
