Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Australia is currently is negotiations with Hong Kong to bring back US$800 in assets belonging to the late owner of BHS Bank, Hendra Rahardja, who siphoned the money from the Bank of Indonesia Liquidity Support (BLBI) fund, an Indonesian official says.
Deputy Attorney General Muchtar Arifin said negotiations over the assets were under discussion between Australia and Hong Kong because the money was channeled through Australian banks.
""Hong Kong authorities have disclosed that Hendra's total assets there reached over $800 million. Since the assets were transferred from Australia to Hong Kong we asked the Australian government to help us. They agreed to help.
""Australia is now finishing technical matters with Hong Kong. We are optimistic that we can recover the assets by next year,"" Muchtar said at the close of a conference on regional crime prevention at the Borobudur Hotel in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Muchtar, who is also the head of the Attorney General's Office anticorruption team, said his confidence was boosted by the fact that Hong Kong was part of China, a country that had a good record of cooperating with Indonesia in fighting corruption in the region.
Hendra, who was tried in absentia for corruption involving Rp 1.95 trillion (US$216.7 million) of BLBI funds, died in Australia in January 2003. According to the AGO team, Hendra had assets worth about $9.3 billion. However, as of 2004, Indonesia had recovered just A$642,000 from Australia.
An official alleged that Hendra's family and friends had sold all of his assets and transferred the money to Hong Kong, China, the Cayman Islands and the Virgin Islands soon after they learned that the Indonesian government was after the money.
According to the AGO, Indonesia earlier approached Hong Kong directly but were asked to pay a 20 percent administration fee for the assets to be returned to Indonesia, with the remaining 80 percent divided equally between the two countries. Indonesia reportedly rejected the demand.
Australia and Indonesian officials are currently also working together to secure the extradition of two fugitives convicted of misappropriating trillions of rupiah in BLBI funds.
The two fugitives are Hendra's son, Eko Edi Putranto, and the former president director of Bank Surya, Adrian Kiki Aryawan.
Eko was convicted in absentia and sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined Rp 1.95 trillion by the Central Jakarta District Court on March 22, 2001. Adrian was sentenced to life in prison and fined Rp 1.5 trillion by the same court the following year.
""We hope the two can be sent home soon. If we have them then we'll know (the value of) the assets that we can recover,"" Muchtar said.
A total of Rp 145 trillion (US$16 billion) in BLBI money was disbursed to 48 banks during the 1997-1998 East Asian Economic Crisis to keep them afloat in the wake of a massive withdrawal of foreign capital from the country. However, many debtors abused the liquidity support and took the money for themselves.
Data from Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) shows that, at the end of 2006, only 16 of the 65 people questioned by the AGO over the BLBI case had been taken to court, and only one had gone to prison. Nine have fled the country.
