Pertamina?s Petral not involved in forgery case: Lawyer

A senior lawyer of state oil and gas firm Pertamina insists that the Singapore-based wholly owned company Pertamina Energy Trading Limited (Petral) has not been involved in a US$8.2 million forgery case on which the island state?s court will make decision this month.

Simson Panjaitan said that signatures in the documents used to withdraw the $8.2 million fund from Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) in Singapore were false. ?Moreover, there is no Petral logo on the documents,? he told Petromindo.Com on Tuesday.

Petral is Pertamina?s trading unit for crude oil and crude products.

Reports said that a Singapore court had planned to make decision on the forgery case on Jan. 21. The court will decide whether there was enough evidence to determine that Petral had stolen money from CSFB using forged documents.

Singapore?s white-collar crime unit has investigated Petral for nearly eight months based on reports from CSFB.

Meanwhile, Simson said that Pertamina, through lawyers from Singapore's law firm Haq & Selvam, had filed a counter-suit against CSFB in Singapore. Pertamina insisted that CSFB allow its officials to examine the documents which the bank had claimed to be signed by Petral leaders, which CSFB refused to do on the pretext of bank secrecy. (godang)