Indonesian prosecutors Thursday questioned the youngest son of longest serving president Soeharto for his alleged embezzlement of the equivalent of 18.7 million U.S. dollars in state funds through clove trade monopoly.
"I was summoned for an inquiry into the alleged misuse of Bank Indonesia's financial support lent to BPPC (Clove Marketing and Buffer Agency)," Hutomo Mandala Putra, better known here as Tommy Soeharto, told reporters upon arrival at the Attorney General's Office here.
He said the central bank's loan to BPPC totaled 569 billion rupiah (60.9 million U.S. dollars).
The BPPC was a monopolistic agency in the lucrative clove industry established on a decree signed by then president Soeharto.
In addition to huge state fund injected to the agency, all clove growers were urged to sell output to BPPC at low prices, and the agency resold them to major cigarette industries at much higher prices.
Tommy, who chaired now-defunct BPPC, is suspected of embezzling central bank's loans intended to assist clove farmers.
He has served a jail term for masterminding the late 2001 killing of a supreme judge who convicted him of another graft case. But he only served half of the 10-year jail term thanks to many government remissions.
Source: Xinhua
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