THE two documents bore the letterhead of Bank Century. Their contents: minutes of the meeting between the management of the bank that has now become Bank Mutiara and representatives of Budi Sampoerna, a tobacco entrepreneur from Surabaya, one of their clients. It was mentioned, among other things, that Budi would cash in a fund of US$58 million in rupiah.

There was nothing strange as it was a normal meeting between a bank and its major client.