Novianti Setuningsih – Antigraft investigators have questioned Miranda Goeltom, a former Bank Indonesia deputy governor convicted of bribery, as the latest high-profile witness to the controversial Rp 6.7 trillion ($579 million) bailout of Bank Century in 2008.
Priharsa Nugraha, a spokesman for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), said on Friday that Miranda was called in to testify for Budi Mulya, a former BI deputy governor who is expected to stand trial later this year for his role in the long-running scandal.
Miranda arrived at the KPK office in South Jakarta early on Friday morning, but only told reporters that she was there to be questioned in the Century case. She was still being questioned as of press time.
Miranda, sentenced to three years in prison last year for bribing legislators in 2004 to appoint her the senior deputy governor of the central bank, is the latest top BI official to be grilled in connection with the Century bailout.
KPK investigators earlier this week questioned Agus Martowardojo, the finance minister, and Darmin Nasution, the former BI governor, in the same case.
The KPK's long-running investigation into the case stems from a resolution by the House of Representatives that the bailout, during the height of the 2008 global financial crisis, was fundamentally flawed.
The police and the Attorney General's Office are pursuing parallel probes in the same case.
Critics of the bailout contend that the move was far too costly and politically manipulated to rescue depositors linked to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party.
However, the government insists that the rescue was justified because Century's imminent collapse would have posed a systemic threat to the country's banking sector at a particularly critical time.
Interest in the case has been revived with recent claims by Robert Tantular – the bank's former co-owner, who has just finished serving a four-year jail sentence for violations committed prior to Century going bust – that there were political motivations for allowing the bank to fail, and that nearly a third of the bailout money never reached it.
Robert's lawyer, Andi Simangunsong, said on Monday following his client's questioning by the KPK that Rp 2 trillion of the fund was never injected into the failing bank, but kept at the central bank instead.
Robert also claims that the bank only needed a Rp 1 trillion bailout, and that the decision to inflate the sum was made with political interests. He also said BI had refused to grant the bank's request for a Rp 1 trillion bailout on Oct. 29, 2008.
That refusal eventually caused Century to collapse on Nov. 13, 2008, with the government stepping in to save the bank.
Robert submitted four documents to the KPK on Monday to back his claims. One of the documents he submitted was a personal statement that said he had offered to personally put up 20 percent of the total needed to rescue the bank, prior to the move by Deposit Insurance Corporation (LPS) to take over the bank.
Robert has also previously suggested that the bank was deliberately allowed to collapse so that the government could initiate a bailout. "We suspect there were 'invisible hands' that intentionally caused the bank's collapse and made Century unable to meet its daily obligations," Andi said.