Five directors of the company at the centre of the multi million dollar letter of credit (L/C) frauds involving state-owned Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) have been sentenced to jail terms of between eight and 15 years.

The sentences are tougher than prosecutors had asked for, but not as harsh as those handed down to former bank employees earlier this year.

Directors

A court in Jakarta has found the directors of Gramarindo Group guilty of illegally obtaining the equivalent of around US$79.5 million of bank funds in the bogus L/C scheme.

Ollah Abdullah Agam, Aprilla Widata and Adrian Pandelaki each received a sentence of 15 years in prison. Richard Kountul was handed down a 10-year jail term. Titik Pristiwati was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Tough sentences

The jail terms handed down by the court were harsher than those demanded by the defendants' prosecutors who had asked for sentences of between eight and 10 years in jail for the defendants.

The prosecutors said the fraudsters convicted at this trial were not the masterminds behind the bank fraud, but the presiding judge thinks the long sentences are justified. "We gave them heavier sentences because they were involved actively in the scam," he said.

Related cases

This is the first batch of sentences to be handed down to people other than former BNI employees.

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).

The trial of more suspects associated with Gramarindo is continuing while others remain under investigation.

African connections

The trials centre on the equivalent of around US$200 millionswindled from BNI's branch in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, through the issuance of fictitious L/Cs to private companies from late 2002 to mid-2003.

The L/Cs from phoney correspondent banks in the Congo and Kenya were used to withdraw the funds from the branch.

Suspects at large

Investigators say they have 16 suspects in the case but have so far only managed to prosecute 12 of them.

The alleged ringleader in the fraud and owner of Gramarindo, Maria Pauline Lumowa, has evaded arrest and absconded abroad.

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