Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo, Jakarta – Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh on Wednesday dismissed claims by a Cabinet minister that his office had assured a French bank that money held there by Tommy Soeharto was corruption-free.
Justice and Human Rights Minister Hamid Awaluddin has said the AGO issued the recommendation about Tommy's money to the Bank Nationale de Paris (BNP) Paribas branch in London, before the bank released US$10 million of the money.
Tommy, whose full name is Hutomo Mandala Putra, is the son of former dictator Soeharto.
"I have checked with the Deputy Attorney General for State Administrative Cases at the time of the withdrawal. There was no letter of recommendation issued at the time," the Attorney General told reporters at his office.
"We did not issue any letter to Hidayat Achyar," he said, referring to a lawyer for Tommy who works for the Ihza and Ihza law firm, which is run by State Secretary Yusril Ihza Mahendra.
Tommy hired Ihza and Ihza to withdraw US$10 million from BNP Paribas in London in 2004. Paribas asked for a recommendation that the money was legitimate before releasing it.
"Please bear in mind that the Attorney General's Office (AGO) is involved in the trial of a dispute between Tommy and the BNP Paribas branch in Guernsey. Meanwhile, the issue of the letter of recommendation is over a different case with a BNP Paribas branch in London," he said, underlining that the two cases occurred in two different countries with different legal systems.
A company called Motorbike, which succeeded in securing the $10 million, is involved in a legal dispute with BNP Paribas London, while Garnet Investment Ltd. is suing BNP Paribas Guernsey. Both Motorbike and Garnet, which are based overseas, are owned by Tommy.
"The (recommendation) case was with Motorbike while our problem now is with Garnet," Abdul Rahman said.
Garnet had asked the BNP Paribas branch in Guernsey to make 36 million euros available to Tommy from one of his accounts. When the bank refused three times, Garnet decided to take it to court in March 2006.
The AGO was invited to be a third party in the Garnet vs. Paribas Guernsey trial. The AGO is claiming the funds belong to the Indonesian government because they were obtained through graft in Tommy's various business.
Abdul Rahman said he had contacted Justice Minister Hamid Awaluddin to check whether he had approved the transfer to Motorbike.
Hamid, who acknowledged that Tommy's funds were transferred by way of a justice ministry account, told the Attorney General that the money had been verified as clean by the Financial Transaction and Report Analysis Center (PPATK).
The analysis center, however, denied this. PPATK head Yunus Husein said he did not issue a letter to smooth the fund transfer. "The (justice ministry) only asked us for information regarding the Motorbike corporation. There was nothing about the company in our database," Yunus said.
Since Motorbike is based in the Bahamas, the justice ministry would have had to verify its status outside the country, he added.
Yunus said he was asked by then Director General of General Legal Administration (AHU) Zulkarnain Yunus to release information that Motorbike was clear from any money laundering allegations.
"They said that the information was needed for 'good governance' reasons," he said, adding that he only wrote a short letter in response to Yunus' request.