Riau Islands Police Reveals Case Of Distribution Of Singapore Dollars, Total Reaches IDR 45 Billion

The Riau Islands Regional Police revealed a case of the circulation of counterfeit Singapore dollars (ANTARA/Jessica)

RIAU - Riau Islands Police (Kepri) revealed a case of the circulation of counterfeit Singapore dollars with 390 pieces of evidence with a Singapore dollar denomination of 10 thousand or a total of Rp45 billion. The Head of Public Relations of the Riau Islands Police, Kombes Zahwani Pandra Arsyad, said that his party had arrested four suspects (Bh, Ah, My and C) in this case. "So, in general, around September 2023, one of the suspects brought the amount of Singapore dollars brought from Pekanbaru to Batam, then given to someone with a calculation that they would later get paid," said Pandra in Batam, Antara, Wednesday, January 31. In September, it was suspected that the incident was reported by EA to the Riau Islands Police, and at that time it was traced through an investigation process with the background of a person (one of the suspects) who came from Pekanbaru to Batam City. The suspect tried to convince EA that the money he brought was genuine, but was an old output. "If it is sold, then EA is promised a profit of 30 percent. At that time EA did not believe it and was related to money changers to check," he said. According to Pandra, at that time EA was still not sure, he did not take all the money, but only 2 pieces of 10 thousand Singapore dollars. "What his friend brought to Singapore was to prove there. However, up to there, these 2 pieces of fragments cannot be made into transactions," he said. That way, in the end EA's friend was detained by the Singapore police so he asked EA for help for his criminal process. "EA also reported to the Regional Police for investigation. From that result, we have started working with the Singapore police on how this EA friend was sent back to Indonesia," said Pandra.

The articles suspected are Article 245 Juncto Article 55 paragraph (1) to 1 of the Criminal Code, concerning emphasizing the object of being imitated and/or falsified and circulated to the public are currency or bank money issued by the State or Bank, with a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.