The Jakarta Post, 28 November 2009
The Financial Transactions Report and Analysis Center (PPATK) has identified 17 recipients of potentially suspicious transfers from Bank Century, which received Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716.56 million) in bailout funds. As of Nov. 23, the PPATK recorded 50 suspicious transactions between accounts in Century to accounts in 10 other financial institutions, it said in a statement issued on Thursday.
"Existing analysis results show at least 17 recipients in the form of institutions and the other individuals," PPATK head Yunus Husein said. He said the results had been sent to the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) for further examination.
Yunus said BPK had requested the PPATK to examine the transfer of funds from Century to accounts in 16 financial institutions, which involved 124 transactions and "more or less" 50 depositors. The BPK alleged there were some misappropriations of bailout funds.
Century, which has rebranded itself as Bank Mutiara, received a total of Rp 6.76 trillion in bailout funds between Nov. 24, 2008 and July 24, 2009 after it was decided that its collapse could cause a systemic threat to Indonesia's banking system. The total cost of the bailout reached more than ten times the initial estimate of Rp 632 billion, a figure which the government first used as the basis to decide to rescue the bank back on Nov. 21.
There is public speculation that Bank Century was saved because it held potential campaign funds in support of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono although the President has assured observers this was not the case.
Pressures are said to be mounting from politicians and protesters for Vice President Boediono (then central bank governor) and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati to resign as they are deemed responsible for the decision.
The PPATK refused to name recipients of suspicious transfers to the public as this would violate the 2003 money laundering law.
Yunus also said there were some financial institutions that had yet to provide information and documents requested by the PPATK to track the transfer of funds due to "technical aspects of banking operations". He added that the PPATK had so far tracked to two or three layers of the transfer of funds out of the seven layers of transactions initially demanded by the BPK.
"PPATK doesn't have online access to the database of financial institutions, so to track funds it should request information on transfers to financial institutions, which takes time," said Yunus.
Bank Mutiara president director Maryono said Thursday that between November and December 2008 depositors withdrew a combined value of Rp 4 trillion from their accounts in Century. Maryono elaborated that Rp 2.2 trillion had been transferred to 8,250 small depositors, each valued under Rp 2 billion, with the remaining Rp 1.8 trillion being disbursed to 328 big depositors with an average value of Rp 5.6 billion per depositor.
"The depositor that withdrew the most was a state enterprise," Maryono said, refusing to say which state firm was involved. He refused to mention in what sectors the companies were. "But I can assure you that none of the funds was transferred directly to any politician or to the campaign team of any political parties," Maryono said.
Source: The Jakarta Post
The Financial Transactions Report and Analysis Center (PPATK) has identified 17 recipients of potentially suspicious transfers from Bank Century, which received Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716.56 million) in bailout funds. As of Nov. 23, the PPATK recorded 50 suspicious transactions between accounts in Century to accounts in 10 other financial institutions, it said in a statement issued on Thursday.
"Existing analysis results show at least 17 recipients in the form of institutions and the other individuals," PPATK head Yunus Husein said. He said the results had been sent to the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) for further examination.
Yunus said BPK had requested the PPATK to examine the transfer of funds from Century to accounts in 16 financial institutions, which involved 124 transactions and "more or less" 50 depositors. The BPK alleged there were some misappropriations of bailout funds.
Century, which has rebranded itself as Bank Mutiara, received a total of Rp 6.76 trillion in bailout funds between Nov. 24, 2008 and July 24, 2009 after it was decided that its collapse could cause a systemic threat to Indonesia's banking system. The total cost of the bailout reached more than ten times the initial estimate of Rp 632 billion, a figure which the government first used as the basis to decide to rescue the bank back on Nov. 21.
There is public speculation that Bank Century was saved because it held potential campaign funds in support of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono although the President has assured observers this was not the case.
Pressures are said to be mounting from politicians and protesters for Vice President Boediono (then central bank governor) and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati to resign as they are deemed responsible for the decision.
The PPATK refused to name recipients of suspicious transfers to the public as this would violate the 2003 money laundering law.
Yunus also said there were some financial institutions that had yet to provide information and documents requested by the PPATK to track the transfer of funds due to "technical aspects of banking operations". He added that the PPATK had so far tracked to two or three layers of the transfer of funds out of the seven layers of transactions initially demanded by the BPK.
"PPATK doesn't have online access to the database of financial institutions, so to track funds it should request information on transfers to financial institutions, which takes time," said Yunus.
Bank Mutiara president director Maryono said Thursday that between November and December 2008 depositors withdrew a combined value of Rp 4 trillion from their accounts in Century. Maryono elaborated that Rp 2.2 trillion had been transferred to 8,250 small depositors, each valued under Rp 2 billion, with the remaining Rp 1.8 trillion being disbursed to 328 big depositors with an average value of Rp 5.6 billion per depositor.
"The depositor that withdrew the most was a state enterprise," Maryono said, refusing to say which state firm was involved. He refused to mention in what sectors the companies were. "But I can assure you that none of the funds was transferred directly to any politician or to the campaign team of any political parties," Maryono said.
Source: The Jakarta Post
