A court in Indonesia has jailed an energy trader who used a letter of credit (L/C) to cheat his employers of US$8 million.

The Central Jakarta District Court sentenced former PT Petral vice president Zainul Arifin to a jail term of four years for embezzling US$8 million from a company account in a Hong Kong bank. He was also fined around US$32,200.

Bank transfers

The court heard that Arifin transferred US$9 million in 2002 from Petral's account at Paribas Bank in Hong Kong, to Credit Suisse Singapore (CSS). Prosecutors said he had counterfeited Petral president Soekono Wahjoe's signature to secure this transfer.

Arifin then asked CSS to transfer US$8 million via an L/C from Petral's account to an account belonging Aceasia, a finance firm owned by fellow suspect Deddy Budhiman Garna.

Innocent

The bank duly granted the request and transferred the US$8 million credit to Aceasia using Petral's US$9 million as collateral. Deddy failed to pay back the loan to CSS and Petral's account was debited to offset Deddy's debt.

Arifin insisted throughout his trial that he had been told to forge the Petral president's signature and that he had done nothing wrong.

Petral is the Singapore-based subsidiary of Indonesia's state-owned oil and gas firm, PT Pertamina.

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