Benny Tjokro: Prosecutors Mistakenly Associated Me With Wana Artha

Jakarta - Benny Tjokrosaputro, the defendant in the suspected corruption case of the Jiwasraya Insurance, admitted that he was a victim of the conspiracy of the Public Prosecutor (JPU). According to him, many of the accusations and demands addressed by the prosecutor are completely baseless

According to Benny, the perpetrators of the LCGP share transaction, the share code belonging to PT Eureka Prima Jakarta Tbk, did not practice the share ownership of the limited liability company for and on behalf of themselves (nominee agreement).

The owner of PT Hanson International Tbk with the ticker code MYRX admits that he does not own WanaArtha Life shares. The prosecutor is accused of manipulating the facts.

"This shows that the prosecutor manipulated the facts with a series of lies and bad faith in the name of the law to criminalize myself," he said in a defense note or pledoi during a follow-up hearing at the Corruption Court on Thursday, October 22 yesterday.

Benny questioned the demand for life imprisonment. In fact, the facts at the trial could not prove that Benny Tjokro controlled or controlled Jiwasraya's investments, both in equity funds and in the stock transactions they had traded.

"I cannot understand and accept the prosecutor's demands for life imprisonment because it is based on the Corruption Act and TPPU, because what I feel is injustice and hurts people's sense of justice," said Benny Tjokro.

He denied that it was associated with transactions related to illegal Jiwasraya with Heru Hidayat, Joko Hartono Tirto, Hendrisman Rahim, Hary Prasetyo and Syahmirwan. The transactions carried out are legally valid and all of their obligations have also been paid from both the share RePO and the MTN-MTN that have been issued. This means that there will be no more state financial losses resulting from the RePO and MTN agreements.

"The prosecutor's accusation is only because they bought my group's shares, then immediately considered using the nominee is a disgrace. The witnesses also said that the LCGP was not mine. In fact, the Prosecutor Tumpal Pakpahan in the trial case versus Pupuk Kaltim knew very well that LCGP was Denny's. Bustami, not Benny Tjokrosaputro, "he explained.

Benny Tjokro's attorney, Bob Hasan, said that the prosecutor had overly linked Wana Artha with the Jiwasraya case. Based on the investigation conducted by his party, there is no connection between Wana Artha and the case that shackled Benny Tjokro.

"This is excessive. They think that Benny's nominee is controlled by Wana Artha. On the contrary, it provides loans to issuers," Hasan said.

He indicated that there was an error by the prosecutor when freezing Wana Artha's securities account. One of them is confiscating without examining the Issuer concerned.

"Pak Benny uses nominees. Meanwhile, Wana Artha is the boss. The nominees are lower strata. So there is no connection," Hasan continued.

Because of this, Hasan asked the Panel of Judges to open the securities account which was frozen due to the investigation into the corruption case at the state-owned company.

"Yes. One of the confiscations was the result of irregularities or legal actions. Now the question is, which illegal act was committed by Wana Artha," he said.

Al Azhar University Law Expert, Suparji Ahmad, on a different occasion stated that investigators should not freeze securities accounts without examining the issuer in question.

"If it has nothing to do with crime. Indeed, it should be returned. The rule is that confiscation should not be arbitrary," continued Suparji.

The legal process carried out by the prosecutor should not have disturbed the economic sector. Moreover, currently Wana Artha has difficulty paying customers' policies due to the asset freeze.