Ex-Pertamina official gets 4-year sentence

The central Jakarta district court on Monday sentenced former PT Petral vice president Zainul Arifin to four years in prison for embezzling US$8 million from a company account in a Hong Kong bank. The Jakarta Post reported Tuesday.

He also fined Rp 300 million (US$32,200)

PT Pertamina Energy Trading Limited (Petral) is Singapore-based subsidiary of Indonesia?s state-owned oil and gas firm, PT Pertamina.

Prosecutors had demanded eight years? imprisonment for Zainul as well as an order to compensate for state losses of $8 million and to pay fine of Rp 300 million.

Presiding judge Agus Subroto said Zainul was proven guilty of signing a letter asking the Credit Suisse Singapore (CSS) Bank to transfer account to an account belonging to a financing firm, Aceasia, which was owned by fellow suspect Deddy Budhiman Garna.

Zainul signed the letter without the permission or acknowledgement of Petral?s board of commissioners, a violation of Pertamina policy. The move caused major losses to the company.

?The losses of Petral are also the losses of Pertamina, which also means state losses,? Agus said.

Prosecutors charged that Zainul transferred $9 million in 2002 from the firm?s account at Paribas Bank,Hong Kong, to Credit Suisse Singapore (CSS) bank. They said he apparently counterfeited Petral president Soekono Wahjoe?s signature to secure the transfer.

He transferred the money into open a letter of credit from CSS bank as part of his business agreement with Aceasia.

The bank granted the request and transferred the $8 million credit to Aceasia with Petral?s $9 million account there as collateral. Deddy failed to pay back the loan to CSS bank and the Petral account was used to offset Deddy?s debt.

?Although the defendant said he had been fooled by Petral president Soekono Wahjoe into signing the letter to offset Deddy?s debt, he still must be held responsible for that because he was the one who signed it,? Agus said.

Zainul reject the verdict. ?I should have been released because I am innocent. I didn?t do anything wrong,? he told the court when asked if he would file an appeal. Zainul?s lawyer did not attend the trial session.

Prosecutors said they had not yet decided whether to appeal the sentence. (*)