Farouk Arnaz

Police Say Gang Swindled Rp 20 Billion From Top Brunei Official

National Police on Monday announced the arrest of a group of alleged con artists said to have scammed Rp 20 billion ($1.9 million) from a senior Brunei government official by impersonating a representative of a prominent Indonesian political party and asking for a donation.

The group, most of whom were from South Sulawesi, had been operating since 2006 and made their living by impersonating government officials.

They would make phone calls to their victims and ask them to deposit money into various bank accounts.

“Thank God we were able to apprehend them now,” Insp. Gen. Hadiatmoko, deputy chief of the National Police’s criminal investigation department, told a news conference. “We have arrested 13 suspects in different places since last week.” The 13 were in custody in Jakarta, he said, adding that two others, including the alleged mastermind, were still at large.

Hadiatmoko said the group compiled information about high-profile figures from Indonesia and elsewhere via the Internet, newspapers and the White and Yellow Pages.

“In their latest effort, for reasons related to the election, this group started to seek out other countries,” he said.

“They called at least 32 foreign officials, including an official from Brunei Darussalam who transferred Rp 20 billion to their account at Bank Mandiri last month.”

Hadiatmoko declined to name the Brunei official or the Indonesian official who the group had impersonated.

Officials at the Brunei Embassy in Jakarta and the Brunei Prime Minister’s Office in Bandar Seri Begawan could not be reached for comment on Monday night as their offices were closed.

It is illegal for foreign governments or companies to make campaign contributions to Indonesian parties or candidates.

Indonesian presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng said the government had told the public to beware of people identifying themselves as officials and asking for money. “We’ll be glad if all those people are arrested, because what they’re doing is a crime,” he said. “We already issued [warnings] to the public, and told them to beware and be careful if anyone calls from the [State Palace] asking for money.”

Hadiatmoko said the group would open bank accounts under the names of public figures to convince victims they were legitimate. In one case, he said, they opened an account as Director General of Customs Anwar Supriyadi. “They made a fake [ID card] with Anwar’s name to open the account,” Hadiatmoko said. “With this account, the victim would believe that it was Anwar who called asking them to transfer money.”

The 13 suspects were identified as Roni Hermawan, Mutiara Putri, Ida Mulyani, Rudi Chaerul, Sudirman, Nenden Sintawati, Reffi, Basri Atika, Andi Akbar, Vera Agustina, Siswanto, Bambang and Malik.

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