Indonesian Police Uncover International Money Laundering Syndicate

Thursday, 05 March, 2009 | 16:54 WIB 

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Indonesian National Police arrested two people linked to international money laundering crimes on the internet. Hendrianto, 45, an Indonesian citizen, and Singaporean Yap Kok Yong Carlson, 30, were arrested at the Swiss Bell Hotel in Medan, North Sumatra. “The two were suspected of committing fraud through the internet,” Criminal Investigation Division chief, Com. Gen. Susno Duadji, told reporters at his office yesterday. 

Susno said the police were still pursuing four other members of the syndicate, namely Andreas Nicholas, a UK national, Ricard Pereira (Singapore), Phanos Tenizes (Cyprus), and Christanto (Indonesia). He said the four fugitives were already in the wanted list of criminals. “We are cooperating with the British Interpol to nab Andreas,” he said. 

The arrest, Susno said, started with a report from the Austrian Embassy in Indonesia. The embassy received a report from an Austrian citizen, Emmeran Fischer, who was a victim of the syndicate. 

Fischer, Susno said, saw an advertisement for cheap electronic goods at www.alibaba.com. On December 8 last year, Fischer met with the suspects at the MMTC Warehouse, on Williem Iskandar Street no B-20 in Pancing, Medan. Their transaction involved 32.000 units of electronic goods, consisting of 5.000 Nintendo Wii, 5.000 Nintendo Game NHL, 5.000 Nintendo Game Pro Evolution, 5.400 Sony PS3, and 800 Apple iPhone. “The transaction value was more than Rp 20 billion,” said Susno. 

Fischer transferred the money to Bank Mega’s branch in Batam, through the JP Morgan Chase Bank in New York. The delivery was made to an Anugerah Jaya Perkasa company. However, until the end of the delivery deadline date, which was December 20, 2008, the ordered goods never made it to Vienna, Austria. The offenders claimed bad weather had impeded the delivery. They asked for more money to send the goods by sea. “But the promise was still not kept,” he said. 

Based on the report, the police went to the warehouse and found two containers of thousands of packages. However, when the containers were searched, the packages contained bricks and paper. “Only three packages contained electronic goods and they were the samples during the initial transaction,” he said. 

The police and the Report and Financial Transaction Analysis Center (PPATK) are currently investigating a possible money laundering operation through three bank accounts belonging to the suspects. The banks involved Panin Bank’s branch in Medan, Bank Niaga’s branch in Medan, Bank Mega’s branch in Medan, and DBS Bank in Singapore. 

CORNILA DESYANA