Sniffling Out Illicit Transaction Flowed through Indonesian Banks

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a financial intelligence agency under the United States Department of Finance, recorded suspicious transactions through 20 banks in Indonesia worth US$ 504.6 million or Rp 7.5 trillion. These illicit transactions were suspected of having criminal acts, from theft to bribery, according to the probe from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) of 108 media from 88 countries.

The so-called #FinCENFiles document showed that 496 suspicious transactions have flowed from December 22, 2008, to July 3, 2017, through 20 Indonesian banks. PT Bank Mandiri Tbk was among these banks suspected of transferring 111 illicit transactions to other foreign banks. The remittances from Bank Mandiri reached US$ 250.39 million. Another bank is PT Bank Negara Indonesia Tbk (BNI), which facilitated a transaction of US$ 10.2 million, as well as other banks from PT Bank Central Asia Tbk (BCA), PT Bank CIMB Niaga Tbk, PT Bank Windu Kentjana International Tbk, and PT Bank Danamon Tbk.

ICIJ's findings followed the assessment of the financial intelligence team from eight countries, including the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) in November 2019. The head of PPATK, Dian Ediana Rae, acknowledged the FinCEN findings. "PPATK will follow up on all this information," she said as quoted from Tempo. Meanwhile, Bank Mandiri Corporate Secretary Rully Setiawan said that the company had been consistently implementing good governance. Meanwhile, BNI Corporate Secretary Meiliana said that it had never received data verification requests by FinCEN.