NOT long before the bank recapitalizing process started in 1999, Bank Lippo smartly withdrew a number of Lippo Group’s assets worth Rp2.45 trillion. This was done to reduce the amount of bad loans at the Lippo business group. Consequently, Bank Lippo passed the fit-and-proper test conducted by Bank Indonesia (BI). However, the group’s assets that were transferred to Bank Lippo gradually became a time bomb. At the beginning of this yea