Bareskrim Polri Reveals Loaning Practices, Many Claim To Be Cooperatives

ILLUSTRA TION / VOI

JAKARTA - The Criminal Investigation Unit of the Police revealed the practice of illegal online loans (pinjol) because they were not registered with the Financial Services Authority (OJK). In this case, eight people have been named as suspects.

"So we have arrested a total of 8 suspects," said Director of Special Economic Crimes Brigadier General Helmy Santika to reporters, Thursday, July 29.

This disclosure stems from the development of a previous case of borrowing involving PT SCA in the North Jakarta area. Because, during the investigation, it was discovered that the company had a network of other loan companies. In fact, some of them claim to be cooperatives.

"We can find out that there are several other networks. There are in South Sulawesi, East Kalimantan and in Medan," said Helmy.

"Then the team went to Medan, carried out profiling, investigations and we made arrests in the field. From there it developed that it turned out that the perpetrators apart from PT SCA were also affiliated with several KSPs (savings and loan cooperatives)," he continued.

In addition, Helmy said, two of the eight suspects are debt collectors. They often use methods that disturb the community.

"Where do they make messages, writings that may be defamatory in nature," said Helmy.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the OJK Investment Alert Task Force, Tongam L Tobing, said the loan company was illegal because it was not registered. So, they have broken the rules.

"So the principle of lending and borrowing must have a permit. That is the main principle. We see in the OJK regulation 77 of 2016, that every information technology-based lending and borrowing operator must be registered with the OJK. So when registered later, after 1 year, they can take care of licensing," explained Tongam.

In addition, the actions of these illegal lending companies can be considered as an act of fraud. Because, there are many things that are not in accordance with the initial agreement so that it is detrimental to the community.

"Losses that occur in the community from material and material losses, their material is actually deceptive. The loan is actually 1 million which was transferred 600 thousand then the interest is also not according to the agreement, the time period is also not appropriate," said Tongam.

With the disclosure of this case, the suspects will be charged with Article 44-45 paragraph 3 of the ITE Law, Law Number 8 of 1999 concerning Consumer Protection, the Job Creation Law, the Copyright Law, and Article 13 of the Criminal Code. Thus, the perpetrators face a prison sentence of around 5 years.