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Asabri hopes to recover lost Rp 10.9t investment
Benny and Heru, who have been declared suspects by the Attorney’s General Office for alleged corruption involving a troubled state insurer, Asuransi Jiwasraya, made the commitment in a meeting last year, according to Asabri president director Sonny Widjaja.
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Customers are served at an office of the Indonesian Armed Forces Social Insurance company (Asabri) in Jakarta on Jan. 16. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
State-owned social insurer Asuransi Sosial Angkatan Bersenjata Republik Indonesia (Asabri) claimed that it received commitments from businessmen Benny Tjokrosaputro and Heru Hidayat to “return” Rp 10.9 trillion (US$799 million) the insurer lost by investing in their companies’ stocks.
Benny and Heru, who have been declared suspects by the Attorney’s General Office (AGO) for alleged corruption involving a troubled state insurer, Asuransi Jiwasraya, made the commitment in a meeting last year, according to Asabri president director Sonny Widjaja.
Asabri, which handles insurance and pension funds for the military, police and Defense Ministry, lost about Rp 10 trillion through investments in stocks and mutual funds. Asabri’s investments resemble those of Jiwasraya, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD said.
“We met with them in mid-2019 to return our money because this is our troops’ and our police’s money,” he said during a hearing with House of Representatives Commission XI overseeing financial affairs.
He said that after the meeting, both businessmen made commitments to “give back” Asabri’s money. “They’ve signed the papers in front of a notary and we could potentially get the money back,” he said.
Sonny said the insurer could potentially receive Rp 10.9 trillion from the two businessmen, consisting of Rp 5.8 trillion from Heru and Rp 5.1 trillion from Benny.
Asabri was revealed to have invested in Benny’s property firm PT Hanson International, traded under the code MYRX. It also invested in several of Heru’s companies such as coal mining companies PT Trada Alam Minera (TRAM) and PT SMR Utama (SMRU) and fisheries company PT Inti Agri Resources (IIKP).
Hanson International stock prices, for example, plummeted to their lowest level of Rp 50 per share from a high of Rp 153 per share in March 2018.
The Indonesia Stock Exchange had halted trading of the stocks last week when they became implicated in the corruption investigation into Jiwasraya and its failure to pay maturing policies.
Asabri is also planning to meet with its fund managers who have been demonstrating declining performance to ask them to take responsibility for their actions and decisions.
“We will ask them to take responsibility so that our investment’s performance could increase,” Asabri’s investment and finance director Rony Hanityo Apriyanto said.
