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Detective division to focus on tracing assets: Cops
The National Police are currently focused on tracing the whereabouts of US$156 million in state losses allegedly caused by a deal between the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Task Force (SKKMigas) and PT Trans Pacific Pertrochemical Indotama (TPPI)
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he National Police are currently focused on tracing the whereabouts of US$156 million in state losses allegedly caused by a deal between the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Task Force (SKKMigas) and PT Trans Pacific Pertrochemical Indotama (TPPI).
The director of special economic crimes, Brig. Gen. Victor E. Simanjuntak, said on Thursday that investigators had already started tracing the assets, but had yet to discover to where the large sum of money had disappeared.
"Although we have yet to see who exactly received and transferred the money, we have already found out that some of the money was transferred to bank accounts belonging to individuals," he said, adding that the transactions had been done in both rupiah and US dollars.
Previously, the police said that several officials from TPPI and SKKMigas were suspected of money laundering. From 2009 to 2010, TPPI collaborated with SKKMigas to market condensate in this country, but the former never paid the profits from the sales.
Furthermore, Victor claimed that SKKMigas had already handed over condensate to TPPI to sell before the contract was finalized in October 2009.
Despite the alleged foul play, SKKMigas continued to extend its contracts with the firm.
"Our main goal is to retrieve the state losses. What's the point of sentencing someone to 100 years in prison and never get the money back? It's better if the convict is given 10 years, but if much of the losses are retrieved," Victor said.
Currently, the police force have named one official from SKKMigas, only identified as DH, as a suspect, but hinted that there would be more suspects named from both SKKMigas and TPPI.. (hhr)(++++)
