The Troubled Ship
A major scandal has rocked BNI. Swindled through fraudulent letters of credit to the tune of Rp1.7 trillion, the nations second-largest bank with 8 million accounts and total assets of Rp123.7 trillion has been truly shaken. People cannot believe that the manipulations, which went on for almost a year and involved large amounts of foreign currency, were not discovered earlier by the banks directors. A number of the key players have told their stories to TEMPO. The pile of bank documents obtained during this week-long investigation brought up new names in the case of the embezzled funds. The close relations between the actors are becoming clearer, while the fog which once blanketed the bank with the sailing ship logo, is slowly, but steadily, lifting.
Tempo
November 4, 2003
THE Singapore branch office of Bank Negara Indonesia was suddenly a flurry of activities last Monday. A very important meeting was taking place. The banks president director, Saifuddien Hasan, and compliance director Mohammad Arsjad had flown in from Jakarta. As revealed by a senior official of the bank, they came to Singapore for one single objective: to negotiate with Maria Pauliene Lumowa alias Erry, one of the main actors in the Rp1.7-trillio
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