Billions Believed Stolen In Latest Inside Bank Job

Jakarta Globe, Farouk Arnaz | February 20, 2012

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An employee at state-owned Bank Mandiri is under investigation for stealing billions of rupiah, according to a police source, raising more troubling questions about the safety measures in place at the country’s banks.

A source close to the National Police’s criminal investigations unit said the case involved a Bank Mandiri branch in Jambi, but details have not yet been released.

“They [Bank Mandiri] came to us but have not filed an official complaint. Maybe they are doing some tracking first before they lodge an official report,” the source, who did not want to be named, said on Saturday.

“It is suspected that a person inside the bank is involved, and once it is officially reported to us we’ll process the case and arrest the perpetrator.”

The source said the suspected embezzlement occurred on Wednesday. Billions of rupiah were transferred from an escrow account in the Jambi bank to an individual’s account in Probolinggo, East Java, the source said.

“From Probolinggo, within just a few minutes, the money was transferred again to an account belonging to a gold dealer in Jakarta, who then transferred the funds to his wife’s account,” the source said. “Maybe Rp 5.9 billion [$655,000] isn’t a huge amount for Bank Mandiri, with its trillions in assets, but if this isn’t followed up on, then it could cause new problems.”

When contacted by the Jakarta Globe, Brig. Gen. Arief Sulistyanto, the National Police’s director of special crimes, confirmed the embezzlement had been discussed with the police, but declined to comment further.

“There hasn’t been an official report to us, so I can’t say much,” Arief said.

In March last year, the police announced that Inong Malinda Dee, a Citibank Indonesia relationship manager, had been arrested for embezzlement. She was later indicted for stealing $5 million from clients, and on Thursday prosecutors asked the South Jakarta District Court to sentence her to 13 years in prison.

Also in 2011, Itman Hari Basuki, the head of a Bank Mega branch in Cikarang, Bekasi, was allegedly involved in the theft of Rp 80 billion that had been deposited at the bank by the Batubara district administration in North Sumatra.

The money was allegedly invested in two financial management companies, Pacific Fortune Management and Noble Mandiri Investment.

Prosecutors have completed the case file on Itman and he is expected to go on trial soon.

Itman is also a suspect in the embezzlement of Rp 111 billion from an account belonging to oil services company Elnusa at the same bank branch.