Caught in Ibist Scam

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

For nearly half a year, thousands of PT InterBanking Bisnis Terencanas (Ibist) clients have been anxiously waiting for the outcome of the police pursuit of Wandi Sofian, boss of the Ibist investment company. Wandi seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth. The clients are left hoping for their moneys return. They were initially lured by the 48 percent interest or four times bank interest rates promised. About Rp224 billion unsurprisingly flowed into Ibists pockets. Today, the hopes of the investors70 percent of whom are members of the police and the armywere dashed, along with Ibists collapse. History repeats itself; victims continue to fall.

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Endang Suwandis face displayed all the emotions inside him: betrayal, shame and shock. His mind keeps churning. In his sleep, the white-haired 55-year old man is haunted by nightmares. It all started when his deposits of Rp56 million vanished without a trace. Endang and his entire family had hung their fate on this severance pay.

He had no inkling of the disaster that would befall him when a relative cajoled him into investing in a company called

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