Jakarta – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid's former personal masseur, a suspect in a scam involving billions of dollars, has been arrested after months on the run, reports said today.

Police arrested Alip Agung Suwondo, 43, in a raid on one of his villas in the hill resort area of Cisarua south of Jakarta on Saturday, Senior Superintendent Harry Montolalu told the Kompas daily. Suwondo is suspected of using Wahid's name to embezzle 35 billion rupiah ($A7.39 million) from an employee fund of the state national logistic agency (Bulog) in January.

Montolalu declined to give further details on the arrest. But the Media Indonesia daily said the arrest was the culmination of a week of observation by detectives who hired a house next to a villa believed to have been bought by Suwondo in the middle of this year. It also said that the arrested man only admitted to being Suwondo hours after he had been questioned and brought to Jakarta.

The case has dogged Wahid, with a parliamentary committee seeking to question the president over his possible role in the scam, popularly known here as "Buloggate". Wahid, who has repeatedly stated his innocence, has defiantly said he will not answer the summons.

Suwondo had approached the Bulog deputy chief Sapuan saying that Wahid needed funds to cover humanitarian relief in the restive province of Aceh. Wahid has said that he had initially sought such funds from Bulog but desisted after being told that the process was complicated and would need a long time.

But Sapuan allegedly issued a check for the amount to Suwondo from the Bulog employee funds, not the proper funds of Bulog itself. The money was split with several other individuals, some of whom have since returned their share to the police. At least 15 billion rupiah has been recovered.

Suwondo was still under police questioning, Montolalu said, without giving details on where he was being detained.