Govt recovers Tommy's money

Aditya Suharmoko ,  The Jakarta Post   |  Fri, 08/29/2008 4:46 PM  |  National

The government announced Friday it managed to recover nearly Rp 1.23 trillion (US$133.15 million) from Tommy Soeharto, son of late former president Soeharto.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told a press conference that the Finance Ministry on Aug. 28 ordered Bank Mandiri, Indonesia's largest bank by assets, to disburse all accounts of PT Timor Putra Nasional, owned by Tommy.

According to the ministry, the money was a credit guarantee of Timor Putra to Mandiri that was shifted during the 1997 Asian financial crisis to the Indonesian Banks Restructuring Agency (IBRA), under the ministry.

"We asked (Mandiri) to disburse the money because the credit guarantee was not part of the sales from IBRA to PT Vista Bella Pratama," Mulyani said.

Mulyani said the ministry on April 2003 had re-examined the sales of Timor Putra assets from IBRA to Vista Bella, and found out that there was a conflict of interest as Timor Putra and Vista Bella were affiliated. The finding has been approved by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

"According to the agreement (if both parties are affiliated), the transaction will be canceled. Thus, we asked the accounts to be a state account," she said.

The money is now kept in a temporary account belonging to the Finance Ministry.

KPK and the Attorney General's Office fully support the Finance Ministry's action, Mulyani said.

The ministry's director general of state treasury, Hadiyanto, said the ministry took almost five years to scrutinize the documents needed to acquire Tommy's accounts.

Mandiri president director Agus Martowardojo said the ministry had prepared all documents needed for Mandiri to shift the money into the state account.(and)

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