Big fish: Fraud convict Hartawan Aluwi is helped into a car at the National Police headquarters in Jakarta on Friday. Hartawan, who was repatriated from Singapore on Thursday, was found guilty of embezzlement as part of the now-defunct Bank Century corruption case and was last year sentenced in absentia to 14 years in prison. (JP/Seto Wardhana)

The deportation of a money laundering convict from Singapore and his subsequent arrest on Thursday has led to the country’s leading prosecution agency taking immediate action to regain the stolen assets.

The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) is now in the process of seizing assets worth millions of dollars of money-laundering fugitive Hartawan Aluwi, who has just been detained after eight years on the run abroad, to repay his victims in the Antaboga-Century case.

Junior attorney general for general crimes Noor Rachmad said the assets seized should be channeled back to the 1,118 clients he deceived back in 2008, which caused them to suffer losses, as a whole, of at least Rp 3 trillion (US$228 million).

“This is fraud and money laundering, not a corruption case. Besides imprisonment and a fine, he needs to liquidate his assets to pay back the clients that he cheated. There are 1,118 people,” Noor said on Friday.

The assets in the process of seizure include a mall in Serpong, South Tangerang, Banten; a plot of land in Klender, East Jakarta; 3 billion shares; and approximately $2.6 billion in Hong Kong.

Hartawan, 54, has just arrived in Jakarta late on Thursday after being deported from Singapore. This February, his permanent residency status in the neighboring country was revoked due to the fraud case, according to the Indonesian National Police.

The former commissioner of investment firm PT Antaboga Delta Sekuritas was named a suspect in 2008 and convicted with a 14-year prison sentence and a Rp 10 billion fine in July 2015. However, since 2008 he had been in Singapore.

National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar said that in 2014, then National Police chief Gen. Sutarman went to Singapore to lobby the neighboring government to deport Hartawan, but to no avail. Indonesia and Singapore do not have an extradition treaty in place.

The case started when Hartawan, Antaboga president director Hendro Wiyanto and executive Anton Tantular persuaded Bank Century’s clients to invest in Antaboga in 2008. Bank Century is owned by Anton’s brother Robert Tantular.

“Clients then invested in [Antaboga] expecting high interest rates, with no tax charges and guarantees from Robert. Some Rp 1.45 trillion was collected at the time but rather than being invested, the convicts embezzled it for private use.”

Robert took Rp 334 billion, Anton Rp 308 billion and Hartawan Rp 408 billion. Robert is now serving in prison but Anton and Hendro remain at large. Both fugitives were convicted with 14-year sentences and Rp 10 billion fines.

The AGO calculates the money laundered to reach at least Rp 3 trillion by current currency valuations.

The police handed over Hartawan and his dossier to the AGO for inspection before finally taking him to Salemba Penitentiary in Central Jakarta in the evening.

AGO’s Noor said that thus far the government had not considered laying extra charges for Hartawan fleeing but did not reject the possibility. Similar applies to Samadikun Hartono, another fugitive and former Modern Bank president commissioner who embezzled Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support (BLBI) funds for his bankrupt bank in 1998, causing state losses of Rp 169 billion.

Samadikun, who was captured by the Chinese government in Shanghai last week and arrived also on Thursday evening, is to serve his original conviction of four years. He was moved to Salemba jail in the early hours of Friday.

With the arrest of the two top fugitives, hope is high for the government to continue probing two other separate high profile cases.

The case of the now-defunct Bank Century also saw the embezzlement of Rp 6.7 trillion of Bank Indonesia (BI) bailout funds for the ailing bank back in 2008 during the tenure of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The BLBI case, meanwhile, saw misuse of some Rp 145.5 trillion of loans to help 48 troubled banks during the 1998 financial crisis. In 2002, under president Megawati Soekarnoputri’s administration, at least 21 bank tycoons received “release and discharge” letters, freeing them of their obligation to repay their BI debts.

Besides being handled by the police and the AGO, the two cases were also handled by the Corruption and Eradication Commission (KPK), which has been urged to continue probing the cases for any involvement of government officials.

At least 28 corruption fugitives, including from these cases, are on the most-wanted list of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN).

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