Jakarta – The National Police announced Friday it had discovered the identities of four people believed to have received a share of the funds belonging to Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra that were successfully withdrawn from the London office of the Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) Paribas.
Police are currently investigating the bank accounts of the four individuals, identified only as ZY, TM, IKG and HA.
"We have requested to open the bank accounts (of the four), which allegedly had a connection with Tommy's funds kept at Paribas," National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Bambang Kuncoko told reporters as quoted by detik.com news portal.
Bambang said the police had been cooperating with the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) and the Indonesian banking industry to help focus its investigation on the flow of funds belonging to the youngest son of former president Soeharto.
The Attorney General's Office (AGO), which is holding a parallel investigation into the funds transfer, had earlier alleged that the funds were obtained through money laundering.
The AGO is also currently observing several other corruption cases involving Tommy, including the Goro land swap deal, the Timor Putra National (TPN) car project and monopoly practices carried out by the now-liquidated Clove Marketing and Buffer Agency (BPPC).
Investigators at National Police headquarters had obtained evidence that Tommy's funds were transferred to a number of bank accounts in Indonesia through an overseas company, identified as MIL, in mid 2005.
"A number of witnesses who knew about the fund transfers have also been questioned by the police," Bambang said. "We are stepping up our investigation into building the case (against Tommy)."
The officer disclosed that one of the four recipients had held his share of the cash at the Kebayoran branch of Bank BNI in South Jakarta.
"The police have issued a request to have the account opened and examined... but there is no reply (from the country's financial authorities) yet," he said.
It was reported earlier that Tommy had transferred US$10 million through one of his foreign companies, Motorbike International Limited, to an account belonging to the Justice and Human Rights Ministry. The account was opened by the then director general for legal administration at the ministry, Zulkarnain Yunus, upon the approval of then justice minister Hamid Awaluddin.
It was also reported that the case implicated Hamid's predecessor Yusril Ihza Mahendra.
Meanwhile, National Police chief Gen. Sutanto said police were also investigating 35 million euros belonging to Tommy, which was being held at Paribas' branch in Guernsey, a British crown dependency off the northern French coast, which is also believed to have been obtained through money laundering.
"We will first verify the money laundering allegations. If proven, we will then have the grounds to build the corruption case (against Tommy)," Sutanto told reporters after attending the first anniversary of the National Commission on Police on Friday.
"We will cooperate with the Attorney General's Office and the PPATK to investigate the money laundering allegations."