Husband And Wife Of Commissioner And Director Of Finance Who Embezzled Down Payment To Buy A House In North Jakarta Are Sued For 3.5 Years In Prison

PHOTO VIA BETWEEN

JAKARTA - The Public Prosecutor (JPU) stated that a husband and wife (couple) FH and N were proven to have embezzled down payments for the purchase of a house in North Jakarta.

"The charge is three years and six months because it is legally and convincingly proven to have committed a criminal act of embezzlement in office," said Public Prosecutor Nugraha SH when reading out the demands at the South Jakarta District Court (PN) as reported by Antara, Thursday, June 30.

The public prosecutor before the panel of judges at the South Jakarta District Court who scheduled the reading of the charges against FH and N used Article 374 of the Criminal Code concerning embezzlement in office with a maximum imprisonment of five years.

In the previous trial with the agenda of examining witnesses, it was revealed that embezzlement was carried out when FH served as commissioner and N served as finance director at PT PCI.

During the examination of two consumers as representatives of home buyers, it was also revealed that they were interested in buying the houses offered by FH and N in the 2017 promotional event.

Even in the "lure" of the promotion, they have deposited a down payment of 30 percent of the house price starting at Rp. 300 million in installments.

Consumers are not even suspicious when they receive a notification letter that states that the housing location has been moved from Cilincing, North Jakarta, to Sukapura, North Jakarta.

Then the examination of the directors and former directors at PT PCI also revealed that there was insufficient funds in the PCI account to return the down payment on the house as the basis for reporting to the Police regarding cases of embezzlement.

"So there was a home buyer demanding that the down payment of Rp. 75 million be returned because the promised house had not been built. But the return via transfer was never entered into the account concerned," said SA as PCI Director who was presented as a witness.

Considering that at that time SA served as Marketing Director of PT PCI, practically all home buyers who had already deposited a down payment also charged him with promises.

Regarding the proof of the transfer of Rp. 75 million, SA then checked directly with the bank and it turned out that there were insufficient funds in the checking account.

SA then revealed that the number of home buyers at PT PCI reached 50 people with various conditions. Some have been fully returned, only partially returned, but some have not received a refund at all.

Based on this evidence, SA then conducted an internal audit. It turned out that from the balance in the checking account there had been a number of withdrawals with a total value of Rp. 18 billion. Even based on the police investigation, the value was Rp. 24 billion.

The withdrawal entirely went to private pockets that had nothing to do with the construction of the house. Even several withdrawals were made from Singapore and Japan.

On the basis of this finding, SA then reported the case to the police on October 5, 2020.