Police investigating the multi-million dollar letter of credit (L/C) fraud at state-owned Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) have confiscated assets valued at around US$1 million from a suspect.

Arrests of bank officials meanwhile are continuing as investigators piece together the L/C frauds that some reports suggest might have cost BNI as much as US$200 million.

Confiscated assets

The assets seized from Jeffrey Baso include a property in Bali and another in East Jakarta.

Baso, the president of PT Tri Ranu Caraka Pasifik, was arrested in November 2003 for allegedly conspiring with BNI officials to issue fictitious L/Cs via BNI's Kebayoran Baru branch.

Another businessman and former presidential hopeful, Adrian Waworuntu, has already been sentenced to life imprisonment by an Indonesian court.

Bank collusion

Several BNI directors and former bank employees have also been convicted for their roles in the fraud and received heavy sentences. (DC World News 4 October 2004 and 23 August 2004).

Two more senior BNI officials have been arrested. They are director of compliance Muhammad Arsyad and Tri Kuntoro, who worked in the bank's international relations division.

Most recently, police this month arrested the bank's international division manager, I Wayan Saputra.

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