A tycoon and would-be presidential candidate has been sentenced to life imprisonment for embezzling up to US$200 million in the Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI ) letter of credit (L/C) scandal (DC World News, 20 November 2003).

So far 11 people, including several former bank officials, have been convicted in the BNI scandal but the prime suspect, Maria Pauline Lumowa, has fled Indonesia and is thought to be in hiding in Singapore.

Restitution

Adrian Waworuntu was this week found "legally and convincingly guilty" of corruption by a South Jakarta District Court because he received 41 fictitious L/Cs issued by BNI.

Waworuntu, who says he will appeal against the verdict, has also been ordered to make restitution to the state by paying the equivalent of around US$30 million. This appears to underline signals sent out by the Indonesian authorities indicating that financial criminality is a matter of national importance.

No leniency

"Those people involved in corruption should be punished as severely as possible because the act of corruption has been proven to turn the country poor," presiding judge Roki Panjaitan said during Waworuntu's trial.

Panjaitan said there were no mitigating circumstances to show any leniency to Waworuntu, who was seeking to become a candidate for Indonesia's July 2004 presidential election.

Tough Sentences

The judge concluded that the would-be president was one of the major players in the scandal and had failed to provide the court with a proper account of the scam. "Adrian Waworuntu ordered and accepted the funds from the fictitious letters of credit and transferred them to Pauline's [Lumowa's] personal account," according to Pamjaitan.

Waworuntu's is the latest in a string of tough sentences handed down in cases related to the BNI L/C frauds. Edi Santoso, a former executive of the BNI Kebayoran Baru branch caught up in the scam, was sentenced last year to life imprisonment.

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