T

he former head of Bank Mega Jababeka branch in the West Java city of Cikarang, Itman Harry Basuki, has been sentenced to six years in jail and hit with a Rp 300 million (US$33,300) fine for swindling Rp 111 billion from a fund belonging to publicly listed state oil and gas firm PT Elnusa Tbk.

Judge Gusti Ngurah Arthanaya said that Itman was guilty of corruption for transferring his client’s money to other companies.

“The defendant is also ordered to pay Rp 1.2 billion in compensation money [to the state],” Gusti said at the Bandung Corruption Court on Tuesday.

The sentence was lighter than the public prosecutor’s demand of the 12 years’ imprisonment, Rp 1.4 billion in compensation and a Rp 500 million fine. If the fine was not paid, the prosecutor demanded an additional six years’ imprisonment.

“We are still thinking about whether to take further legal steps. For sure, Itman was found guilty of corruption activity,” prosecutor Ahmad Yohana said.

Itman transferred the money from his bank to private firm PT Discovery Indonesia, chaired by Ivan CH Litha. Ivan was previously sentenced to nine years in jail, received a Rp 1 billion fine and was ordered to pay Rp 89.25 billion in compensation. An additional four years in jail will apply if he does not pay the compensation.

Teuku Zulham, an employee of private company PT Harvest Asset Management, which also received funds, was also sentenced to four years in jail and ordered to pay a Rp 200 million fine.

The men are among six tried over the illegal transfer of Elnusa funds.

Santun Nainggolan, Elnusa’s finance director, was sentenced to eight years in jail and ordered to pay a Rp 5.92 billion fine. He was also ordered to return more than Rp 5 billion.

Ivan’s colleagues at PT Discovery and PT Harvest — Andhy Gunawan and Richard Latief — were sentenced in previous trials to four and six years’ jail respectively.

The case came to light after PT Elnusa deposited, in stages, a total of Rp 161 billion into Bank Mega’s branch in Jababeka in September 2009. PT Elnusa withdrew Rp 50 billion in early 2010, but the remaining Rp 111 billion was stolen by the defendants.

Meanwhile, a Democratic Party member of the West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Legislative Council, Sulaiman Hamzah, stood trial at the Mataram Corruption Court on Tuesday.

He is accused of swindling from a Bima city education fund in 2007, when he was an assistant with the city administration. The alleged corruption cost the state Rp 766.5 million.

Public prosecutor Budi Tridadi said in his indictment that in 2007 the Bima administration was allocated Rp 10.5 billion for 34 elementary schools, with the funds being transferred into the back account of each school.

“In its implementation, however, only Rp 9.7 billion was transferred, with the remaining Rp 766.5 million being missing and unable to be accounted for,” Budi said.

It was later discovered that Rp 766.5 million was transferred to the account of the city administration treasurer, instead of being given to the school recipient on the order of the defendant.