Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Jakarta fraud sleuth arrested

The Indonesian prosecutor investigating a multibillion-dollar fraud has been seized with $800,000 in a home linked to his prime suspect, two days after the case against the tycoon was dropped.

Anti-Corruption Commission officers said they caught senior prosecutor Urip Tri Gunawan "red-handed" receiving the cash on Sunday night. They said they were investigating possible links between the house, a woman found there and one of Indonesia's richest men, Syamsul Nursalim.

Mr Gunawan claims the money was not connected to his investigation of the loss of nearly $A3 billion lent by the Government to Mr Nursalim.

"I'm in the jewel business," he said while being taken into custody. The money came from a diamond sale to unspecified buyers, Mr Gunawan said.

Mr Gunawan was also the lead prosecutor in the terrorism trial of so-called smiling assassin Amrozi Nurhasyim in Denpasar District Court in 2003. Amrozi is on death row for key roles in the Bali nightclub bombings, which killed 202 people.

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