Heru Andriyanto

AGO Looks Overseas in Hunt for $1b in Century Assets

The Attorney General’s Office has contacted authorities in Switzerland and Hong Kong to seek assistance in retrieving stolen assets worth more than $1 billion allegedly embezzled by two suspects in the PT Bank Century fraud case.

“The joint team on the Bank Century case has asked the Swiss authorities to help return cash collateral worth $220 million held at Dresdner Bank of Switzerland,” AGO spokesman Didiek Darmanto said on Monday. “We have been informed by the new management of the bank that the fund is now down to $156 million.”

The government, beginning in November 2008, controversially injected a total of Rp 6.7 trillion ($710 million) in bailout funding to rescue the ailing lender.

Didiek said the team also had sought help from authorities in Hong Kong to track and seize assets belonging to former Bank Century shareholders Hesham al Warraq and Ravat Ali Rizvi.

The two are suspects in the case but remain at large.

Didiek said the two were alleged to have stashed $650 million in stolen Bank Century assets in Standard Chartered Bank and another $388.8 million in ING Bank in Hong Kong.

The joint team, led by Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, includes officials from the AGO, the National Police, the Financial Transaction Report and Analysis Center (PPATK), the central bank, the Capital Market and Financial Institutions Supervisory Agency (Bapepam), the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Finance and the new management of Bank Century, which has been renamed PT Bank Mutiara.

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