A former senior policeman who in 2004 led the investigation into the massive letter of credit (L/C) frauds involving state-owned Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) has been sent to jail for accepting bribes.

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

Sentence

A court in Jakarta has found Brigadier General Samuel Ismoko, who once led the Indonesian police's fraud squad, guilty of accepting bribes. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison.

The court heard that he had received 10 travellers' checks worth around US$27,000 from state-owned BNI as a 'gift' for the squad's success in an investigation into alleged malpractice at the BPD Bali bank.

BNI connection

Prosecutors also said Ismoko was involved in activating a frozen BNI account belonging to a company implicated in the BNI scam called Brocolin International, thus enabling $350,000 to be withdrawn from its bank accounts.

Brocolin is a subsidiary of another company called Gramarindo, whose director, Adrian Waworuntu, was handed down a life sentence in 2005 his role in the BNI L/C scam.

Charges dropped

The court dropped the charges against Ismoko related directly to the BNI L/C frauds, which cost the state nearly US$200 million in losses.

Several police officers involved in investigating the scam are, however, alleged to have accepted bribes during investigations into it.

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