Welcome Guest   |  Login   |   Signup
JG Logo
Sat, May 26, 2012
Archive Search

Ex-Bank Century Owner Dragged Back to Court For New Trial
Eddy Pratama & Heru Andriyanto | April 29, 2011

Share This Page
1
0
0
0
Share with google+ :


Post a comment
Please login to post comment

Comments

Be the first to write your opinion!

Jailed Bank Century co-owner Robert Tantular was hauled to court on Thursday over banking violations that could add up to 15 years to his time in prison.

Robert, serving a nine-year sentence for bank fraud and misuse of clients’ money that nearly led to Bank Century’s collapse in 2008, went on trial at the Central Jakarta District Court.

The court sentenced him to five years in jail in January last year before the Supreme Court added four years to his punishment months later.

Agam, the lead prosecutor, accused Robert of illegally approving credit for 10 bank clients, even if they did not meet the necessary requirements.

In one case, prosecutors said, Robert accepted kickbacks from real-estate management company Tirtamas Nusa Surya in exchange for approving a Rp 75 billion ($8.8 million) loan.

Tirtamas had acted as a caretaker for 44 plots of land in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, which were foreclosed by Bank Century from various debtors.

The firm also handled the sale of those properties to BPK Penabur, an education foundation.

However, prosecutors claim Tirtamas officials pocketed the profit meant for Bank Century and used part of the funds to bribe Robert, the lender’s former majority shareholder, for the loan.

Defense lawyers objected to the indictment, saying Robert was being tried for the same charges on which he was already convicted last year.

“[The indictment] carries exactly the same articles from the banking law, for which my client is already serving a nine-year sentence,” said Tusisius Triyanto, one of Robert’s lawyers.

Tusisius said prosecutors should have brought all the charges against his client in a single trial rather than introducing them separately. While Thursday’s hearing was ongoing, he said, police were preparing a dossier on further charges against Robert.

“The state has failed to deliver legal certainty for its own citizen,” the lawyer said.

Tusisius also accused the state of “dragging out the legal process,” saying Robert’s earlier trial at the Central Jakarta court began three months after the banker’s arrest in April 2008. The recent trial, he continued, came two and a half years later.

“I have been denied a fair trial because my charge sheet has been split into multiple sheets and the legal proceedings seem to have no finish line,” Robert said in court on Thursday.

On Tuesday, the district court upheld its earlier ruling ordering the immediate seizure of Robert’s assets.

Foreign co-owners Hesham al-Warraq and Rafat Ali Rizvi were also charged for the banking violations that led to a controversial state bailout of Bank Century in 2008. The pair fled the country.

Judges threatened to seize assets from the three co-owners unless they paid back the Rp 3.1 trillion they stole from the bank.