French Foreigners Allegedly Victims Of Investment Embezzlement In Gili Trawangan, NTB Police Ensure Legal Process

The NTB Police inspected the land and Bungalo buildings of the alleged embezzlement of investment for French foreigners in Gili Trawangan, North Lombok, Monday, September 4, 2023. (ANTARA)

NTB - The West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Regional Police (Polda) ensures that it will be transparent and process cases of alleged fraud and embezzlement of development investments whose victims are foreign nationals (WNA) from France.

The French foreigner, David Alexandre Guy, invested billions of rupiah to build an inn business in Gili Trawangan, North Lombok.

"In this case, rest assured, we do not cover anything, every time there is a report at the NTB Regional Police, especially at the NTB Police Ditreskrimum, we will definitely process it," said the Director of General Criminal Investigation (Dirreskrimum) of the NTB Police, Kombes Pol. Syarif Hidayat in Mataram, NTB, Wednesday, January 3, confiscated by Antara.

Syarif, who recently served as Director General of Criminal Investigation of the NTB Police at the end of 2023, said he would re-learn the report from the French citizen.

"I study it first, I will see how the progress and progress are. If indeed from the results of the title and the investigation process, strong indications there are criminal acts, and can proceed to the level of investigation, we will definitely process it further. However, if the results do not contain elements of a criminal act, we will stop it and we will inform you," he said.

He explained that his party was following up on a community report that it had to be based on case handling procedures and this took time.

"So, it does take time. It's not as easy as turning your palm. There is a mechanism. Not today reporting, tomorrow they will be arrested immediately. There is a period of time. If you examine witnesses, there is a time limit. This must be done professionally. Everything has rules," he said.

In the report, the French foreigner reported a case of alleged fraud and embezzlement with the reported female businessman from North Lombok Regency with the initials IA.

The lawyer for the reporter, Lalu Anton Hariawan, conveyed that the alleged fraud was related to the cooperation agreement for land and building management in the form of a bunulo.

"The fraud that we reported related to the reported person who admitted in the contract letter that the object of the land and building belonged to him. However, after the GTI (Gili Trawangan Indah) issue emerged, it was revealed that the object of the land belonged to the NTB Provincial Government," he said.

Then, for the alleged embezzlement related to the information of the reported person who claimed that the lodging facilities, such as cabinets, mattresses, and television, belonged to him.

"This is what we both claim. Even though there was an agreement, all of the items were bought by our clients. We have also shown the proof of the purchase and the shop where we bought it to investigators," said Anton.

Regarding the report submitted in mid-May 2023, Anton admitted that he had received a notification letter on the progress of the investigation results (SP2HP) from the police.

"We received the letter on November 17, 2023," he said.

In the letter, the police explained that they had carried out a series of investigations by educating witnesses, collecting evidence, and reviewing agreement letters between the reported and the complainant.

Following up on the results of the investigation, the police informed the reported that the handling of this case still requires the opinion of a civil and criminal expert to determine whether or not there is a criminal act from the report.

Related to this, Anton admitted that he had heard the explanation from investigators that the opinion of criminal and civil experts had been obtained.

"In fact, here there are four civil and criminal experts from the academics used, from Mataram and also from outside the region. Experts conclude that this problem leads to criminal acts, not civil acts," said Anton.

However, after receiving expert information, he said, the police again scheduled additional requests for information from the reported parties, reporters, and a number of witnesses.

By getting such progress, Anton hopes that the police can immediately conduct a case title to reveal the legal certainty of this case.

"So, from the reconstruction of the handling, it is actually quite clear, therefore we hope that the police can immediately provide legal certainty from this case through a case title," he said.