Askrindo Sued for Manipulating Financial Statements

 
Happy Rayna Stephany
 
PT Jakarta Investment (Jakarta Investment), an Investment Management company, has lodged a tort claim against PT Asuransi Kredit Indonesia (Askrindo) at the Central Jakarta District Court. The lawsuit was filed based on an allegation that Askrindo acted in bad faith regarding the placement of certain investment funds.
 
Jakarta Investment is has also lodged claims against other companies including PT Tranka Kabel, PT Multi Megah Internusa, PT Vitron Internasional, PT Reliance Asset Management, and PT Harvestindo Management, PT Indowan Investama Group and PT Natpac Asset Management. In addition, Jakarta Investment has lodged a case against the Development and Financial Oversight Authority (BPKP)
 
“We lodged a claim primarily against Askrindo. Today is supposed to be the first hearing but it was suspended because the respondents did not come,” said Bonifasius Gunung, Jakarta Investment’s counsel.
 
The conflict between Jakarta Investment and Askrindo can be traced back to early dealings between the two companies. Askrindo submitted an offer to Jakarta Investment, stating that Askrindo intended to invest funds amounting to hundreds of billion of rupiah.
 
It has now been revealed that Askrindo was harboring L/C warranty payment defaults by its customers Tranka Kabel, Megah Internusa, and Vitron Internasional amounting USD 50.78 million. This was before Jakarta Investment agreed to the investment offer.
 
Although Askrindo was aware of these circumstances it decided to take Tranka Kabel on as a customer subject to a restructuring program (Program Penyelamatan)—similar to a bailout, and provided it with IDR 26 billion.
 
While circumstances continued to deteriorate following the restructing, Askrindo kept providing unsecured Medium Term Notes to Tranka Kabel amounting IDR 174 Billion.
 
In regard to the program, the Audit Board of the Republic of Indonesia (BPK) conducted an audit in 2005 and recommended that the funds provided by Askrindo had a high risk and should be settled.
 
Askrindo followed up BPK’s audit by investing in the capital market using several instruments including Fund Management Contracts (Kontrak Pengelolaan Dana), Repo Saham (repurchased shares), and Mutual Funds. These were the financial products that were offered to Jakarta Investment.
 
When offering these products to Jakarta Investment, Askrindo was promoting customers that were in default as premium customers and touting them as customers entitled to receive investment funds from Jakarta Investment. Askrindo never mentioned that the said customers were customers that were in default of any L/C warranty payments.
 
Askrindo also allegedly performed manipulation of its financial statements by recording investment placements amounting to IDR 29 billion on 31 December 2005. In fact, the placement was done on 6 January 2006.
 
This served as a basis for the transaction concluded between Askrindo and Jakarta Investment, which primarily provided that Askrindo would place investment funds with Jakarta Investment of IDR 204 billion.
 
Jakarta Investment then distributed these funds to certain debtors, such as PT Reliance Asset Management (IDR 10.97 billion) and PT Harvestindo Asset Management (IDR 24.57 billion).
 
When Jakarta Investment tried to collect the funds from the debtors, they said that they had already paid the funds to Askrindo, which denied that these debtors had paid the debt. As a result, Jakarta Investment suffered losses amounting IDR 148 billion.
 
Askrindo has been approached by hukumonline requesting further details about the case case, however, Danny Arlan, Askrindo’s counsel denied to give further comment.
 
(hot/kc)