The businesswoman sister of the chief suspect in the multi-million dollar letter of credit (L/C) scams involving state-owned Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) has been sentenced to eight years in jail for her role in the frauds.

Jane Iriani Lumowa, managing director of PT Sagared Team, was found guilty of corruption after a court in South Jakarta heard she received more than the equivalent of US$100 million of proceeds from fictitious L/Cs issued by BNI's branch in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta.

Eradicate corruption

The judge hearing the case said Lumowa's actions had damaged the national economy and contravened the government's programme to eradicate corruption.

The prosecution had called for a stiffer sentence of 10 years but the judge said a lighter sentence was in order because Lumowa did not realise the bank documents she signed were part of the conspiracy to defraud BNI funds. Lumowa told the court during her trial that she did not know where the money had come from because she hardly ever went to the PT Sagared Team's office.

It is a subsidiary of the Gramarindo Group that between December 2002 and July 2003 received the equivalent of nearly US$200 million via 37 fake L/Cs issued by BNI, supposedly for export transactions to Congo and Kenya.

Earlier convictions

Earlier this year the former head of the BNI's Kebayoran Baru branch's foreign customer service division, Edi Santoso, received a life sentence and the former head of the branch, Kusadi Yuwono, received a 16-year sentence (DC World News, 23 August 2004).

South Jakarta District Court on 30 September sentenced five Gramarindo directors to jail terms of between 8 and 15 years for their roles in the scam (DC World News, 4 October 2004).

All eight of the convicted fraudsters remain behind bars pending their appeals.

Suspects missing

Police have named 16 suspects in the scam, but only 12 have been prosecuted. Two of the most wanted are missing.

Lumowa's elder sister Maria Pauliene Lumowa, who owns the Gramarindo Group, fled to Singapore. Adrian Waworuntu, recently fled the country (DC World News, 13 October 2004) and is now alleged to have paid a bribe of around US$20,000 to police.

This article represents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the ICC or any of the other partners in DC-PRO.