State firm CEO jailed 8 years for graft

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Fri, 03/17/2006 8:18 AM

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Anticorruption Court sentenced the president director of a state textiles company to eight years' jail and a Rp 300 million (about US$33,000) fine for his part in a Rp 72 billion graft case.

Kuntjoro Hendrartono, president director of Bandung-based PT Industri Sandang Nusantara, was found guilty of selling the company's 261,200 square meter (sqm) property for Rp 41.7 billion or Rp 160,000 a square meter, well below the market price of Rp 117.5 billion at Rp 450,000/sqm.

The judges ruled four months would be added to his sentence if Kuntjoro did not pay the fine.

He will also be required to pay back his share of the Rp 72 billion in losses the transaction caused the state.

Lim Kian Jin, the businessman who bought the property, is being tried separately in the same court over the sale. If found guilty, he would also be expected to pay his share of the money, the judges said.

""The accused is guilty of abusing his power to enrich himself and his company,"" judge Gus Rizal said when handing down the verdict.

""The money must be paid one month after the verdict at the latest, or (Kuntjoro) will have his assets confiscated to compensate for the state's loss,"" Gus Rizal said.

In a related development Thursday, an investigator with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) relinquished Rp 100 million he had extorted from a witness in the case, an official said.

KPK spokesman Tumpak Hatorangan Panggabean said the suspect, policeman Adj. Comsr. Suparman, may have accepted more than the Rp 100 million.

""The KPK and the police are still finding out the actual sum Suparman extorted from a witness,"" Tumpak said.

Suparman is suspected to have extorted the money from Lim Kian Jin before he was named a suspect in the case.

Arrested at his home in Bandung on Tuesday, Suparman was the investigator who first brought the corruption allegations involving the sale of the textile firm to the KPK.

Suparman was a member of a West Java Police team which had originally investigated the case. That probe stalled without police giving a proper explanation, Antara reported.

Quoting a KPK source who refused to be named, Antara said Suparman may have received Rp 500 million from Lim through the suspect's brother, Sriyadi, who has been questioned as a witness.

The first KPK investigator to be charged with graft, Suparman is in detention at the National Police Headquarters in Jakarta.

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