Robert Tantular, who will be sentenced next week for his role in embezzling the bank's money, which led to the bank's precarious state, is currently in the custody of the Attorney General's Office (AGO).

Despite the Deposit Insurance Agency (LPS) channelling Rp 6.76 trillion to keep the bank afloat and prevent a threat to the country's banking sector, the AGO has only sought an eight-year sentence and Rp 50 billion fine for Robert.

The police have managed to unearth, from a Hong Kong bank account, Rp 12.5 trillion (US$1.25 billion) belonging to Robert and his accomplices.

UK national Rafat Ali Rivsi and Saudi Arabian Hesyam Al Warraq, along with Dewi Tantular, Robert's sister, went on the run and are now being hunted by Interpol under the red notice mechanism for their role in ransacking Bank Century.

Dewi is believed by the police to have taken shelter in Singapore - a country with which Indonesia has no extradition treaty.

The Tantular family first entered the banking business during the heady days of the communist threat in Indonesia. In 1965, Hashim Tantular formed Bank Central Dagang, which eventually folded in the 1998 crisis.

In 1989, Hashim transformed his money changing business, Century Intervest Corporation, into Bank CIC, which was controlled by Hindarto Tantular and then later Robert Tantular.

A Washington University graduate, Robert resigned from the CIC management in 2000, but remained an influential figure at the bank. He still has a 9 percent stake in Century through PT Century Mega Investindo, following the bank's merger, and probably also owns public shares in the bank.

Robert, who failed a central bank "fit-and-proper" test in 1999, was questioned by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in 2006 as a witness in the Unibank bond fiasco.

The costly bailout for Bank Century has raised questions over Bank Indonesia's ability to supervise the banking sector, particularly in its treatment of Century as "too important to fail".

Bank Century, formed from the merger of Bank CIC with Bank Pikko and Bank Danpac in late 2004, was mired with problems that should have forced BI to close the bank in 2002, after it posted a negative capital adequacy ratio (CAR).

However, former BI deputy governor Aulia Pohan, who oversaw the banking sector at the time, decided to spare CIC.

Aulia, the father-in-law of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's eldest son, is now serving jail time in a bribery case involving legislators.

BI has also been blamed for compromising too much with banks whose asset compositions are deemed risky during any financial market turmoil, as in the case of Century, which has numerous unrated securities portfolios as assets.

Legislators and analysts allege BI's decision to keep Century intact is because the central bank has long made Century its cash cow.

BI deputy governor for banking supervision, Siti Fadjrijah, denied the allegation late last year.

- JP/Rendi A. Witular, Aditya Suharmoko, Andi Haswidi and Andra Wisnu

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