Shocking Case Of Wrong Transfer Of IDR 32.5 Billion By BRI, DPR Member Firman Subagyo Asks OJK And BI To Check Possible Banking Crimes

BRI branch office building. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - Member of the House of Representatives Firman Subagyo asked the Financial Services Authority (OJK) and Bank Indonesia to examine the possibility of banking crimes in the case of the biggest wrongful transfer in Indonesia by PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia Tbk (BRI), with a fantastic value of Rp. 32.5 billion.

On Tuesday, December 21, 2021, BRI's priority customer named Indah Harini, through her attorney, announced that she was suing the state-owned bank for Rp. 1 trillion for material and immaterial losses due to the wrong transfer case which caused her to be criminalized using Law No. 3 of 2001 concerning Funds Transfer.

This case attracted public attention because of the large transfer value by BRI, which was referred to as a wrong transfer with information on Invalid Credit Account Currency and the length of time before the bank questioned the fantastic funds that had been transferred, which took about 11 months.

"It is advisable that the directors and commissioners need to be asked for information regarding wrong transfers. Because with the fantastic accumulated value of up to Rp. 30 billion, it is reasonable to suspect that there is an element of intent, crime or other elements that must be investigated which are very detrimental to customers," said Firman Subagyo in his written statement, quoted on Monday. 27 December.

Firman said it was illogical for BRI to take issue with the funds transferred to the priority customers after 11 months. According to an official statement from Indah's attorney, from December 1, 2019 until before October 6, 2020, BRI has never had a problem with the transfer of funds.

However, on October 6, 2020, a BRI account officer, who usually serves Indah as a priority customer, called and informed her that there had been an error in her foreign exchange savings transaction, with a fantastic figure of GBP 1,714,842.00 which Indah received from November 25, 2019 to 15 December 2019.

Commenting on this, Firman underlined several irregularities, among them, if the transaction occurred in December 2019, then when the books closed in the same year, the error should have been detected and could be corrected.

"There is something odd. Regulators should not ignore cases like this. They are worried that it could set a bad precedent for the banking industry, especially for state-owned banks," said Firman, adding that there should be no intentional harm to banking customers.

"This motive must be explored so that customers do not continue to use PHP and are disappointed with unprofessional services," said Firman Subagyo.