Farouk Arnaz – Investigating the reasons for the disbursement of Rp 6.7 trillion ($710 million) for the bailout of PT Bank Century was no longer a priority for the National Police, former chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji said on Tuesday.
Susno said the public was wrong to assume that government intervention had resulted in the termination of the police's investigation into the bailout, simply because they had read his written accusations laid out in a 12-page document suggesting that it was terminated to protect the election bid of Vice President Boediono.
"Nobody asked me why it was terminated. I never said it was government intervention. The disbursement of the funds was just no longer a police priority. That was the reason it was stopped," Susno said.
He was referring to the document he gave members of the House of Representatives' special committee investigating the bailout after it questioned him on Jan. 20.
The document said: "Please note that National Police detectives did not prioritize investigations into the disbursement of LPS [Deposit Insurance Agency] funds because of the following: there was a member of the KSSK [Financial System Stability Committee] who at that time was participating in the vice presidential elections. [The investigation] should wait for the inauguration of the vice president. An immediate probe would only cause an uproar, although it would not be difficult to prove that there had been corruption in the bailout."
Susno said that he hoped his statement on Tuesday clarified what was stated in the document.
"The Antaboga scam... that was the priority. My original testimony to the House committee was the one I had provided verbally. The written document was just supporting data. It is just an unfinished concept for a book," Susno said.
He was referring to a case in which investors were defrauded by Bank Century's management just before it failed through a securities scam involving Antaboga Securities, founded by the former Century owner Robert Tantular, who is serving a five-year jail term for the crime.
Investors had been lured into believing that they were investing in a banking product endorsed by Century, as it carried the logo of the bank and was sold through Century. The investors lost a total of Rp 1.4 trillion and this was one of many factors that resulted in the collapse of the bank.
The 12-page document also caused an uproar because Susno linked murder charges against former anticorruption boss Antasari Azhar – for allegedly killing businessman Nasrudin Zulkarnaen – to the arrest of two anticorruption deputies over bogus extortion charges.
Susno has long been known to have strained relations with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), particularly after the KPK wiretapped his conversations during a graft investigation.
The excerpt from the document read: "Investigations into the two KPK deputies began with the National Police chief's wish to uncover the motive behind the murder of Nasrudin. The police chief then appointed [Susno's former deputy] Insp. Gen. Hadiatmoko to coordinate investigations. Hadiatmoko then formed five teams.
"Several months later, the teams had still not turned up any evidence. The National Police chief, however, had already reported to the president that a bribery case involving the chief of the KPK [Antasari] was the motive behind the murder of Nasrudin.
"The National Police chief considered it humiliating that his report was not corroborated so he assigned investigation teams to look for a provable case incriminating the KPK chief."