AGO to identify more Bulog graft suspects next week

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 04/11/2007 3:15 PM

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Attorney General's Office says it will soon release the names of more suspects in a corruption case in which former State Logistics Agency (Bulog) head Widjanarko Puspoyo has been implicated.

Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes Hendarman Supandji said Tuesday prosecutors had almost finished tracing the flow of allegedly illegal funds into several private accounts belonging to or connected with Widjanarko and his family.

""It's still a bit obscure as of now, perhaps next week ... we'll identify the suspects after we re done with the flow of the funds and with those who were aware (of the money transfers) but did nothing,"" he said.

The Attorney General's Office on Tuesday questioned Widjanarko's daughter Winda Djuanda and son-in-law and Andre Djuanda for more than seven hours about their assets and loans.

A family lawyer, Bahari Gultom, said the results of the questioning would be cross-checked and verified during Thursday's scheduled questioning of Widjanarko's wife, Endang Puspoyo.

The case revolves around rice imports from Vietnam and US$1.2 million which was transferred to an account belonging to Widjokongko Puspoyo, the brother of Widjanarko, between 2002 and 2003.

It is suspected the money was a bribe from a company in Vietnam to ensure it secured a contract from Bulog to supply it with rice.

The account, which has been frozen, is held at a branch of Bank Bukopin. Several other accounts in three other banks have also been frozen in connection with the ongoing investigation.

Investigators from the Attorney General's Office earlier found a total of $1.5 million that had been transferred from the Vietnam Southern Food Corporation via the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City, to an account belonging to PT Tugu Dana Utama, Bulog's partner for the Vietnamese rice procurement, at HSBC Bank in Hong Kong.

PT Tugu allegedly transferred $1.2 million of that money to Widjokongko's account at Bukopin.

From that account, a sum of money is alleged to have been transferred to several private accounts belonging to Widjanarko, his wife, his son Rinaldy and his daughter Winda.

Widjanarko is already in custody as a suspect in a Rp 11 billion ($1.2 million) Australian cattle import scandal in 2001.

The Attorney General's Office is set to question Widjokongko and his son Rinaldy about the rice case.

In Surakarta, Central Java, the local prosecutor's office on Tuesday continued confiscating furniture and other assets from two luxury homes owned by Widjanarko in the city.

The workers, who took the items away in vans, declined to answer questions from reporters.

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