He said he has signed an investigation letter to look into the alleged corruption case, which has not progressed since December 2009.
"I signed the letter of investigation this morning," said the chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
During a meeting with the Bank Century`s Monitoring Team on November 20, 2012, Samad said the corruption crimes that caused severe losses to the state have been linked to Budi Mulya (BM), who is the deputy for foreign exchange management at Bank Indonesia (BI) and Siti Chodijah Fajriah (SCF), who is the deputy for BI supervision.
In the letter of investigation, Samad said there are two suspects. "There are two suspects," he said.
Based on an audit by the State Audit Board (BPK) in 2008, nine legal violations in the disbursement of Rp6.7 trillion to Bank Century were found. However, the KPK is focusing its investigation on securities worth US$163.48 billion and the flow of credit to Bank Century, now named Bank Mutiara.
The money had been disbursed during the global financial crisis in 2008.
The case began in late 2008 when Bank Century, during the economic crisis, faced liquidity and default problems. It collapsed after its liquid assets, amounting to Rp11.6 trillion, were withdrawn through its security firm, Antaboga Delta Sekuritas, and stashed abroad by its owner, Robert Tantular.
The ailing bank was then taken over by the Deposit Insurance Agency (LPS). The government later supported it with a bailout of Rp6.7 trillion, through the issuance of a Short-Term Funding Facility (FPJP) and Temporary Capital Participation (PMS), renaming it Bank Mutiara.
The amount provided by the government was far higher than the Rp1.3 trillion package, which was still under consideration by the House of Representatives (DPR) at that time. Thus, the bailout sparked public criticism and scrutiny since it had been disbursed without the approval of the DPR.
(A014/KR-BSR/H-YH)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
