'Tommy' Soeharto loses appeal in Guernsey

JAKARTA. Hutomo 'Tommy' Madala Putra, the son of late president Soeharto, has lost against the Guernsey Financial Intelligence Service (FIS) in a judicial review filed at the Guernsey Court of Appeals in Britain.

"The latest development means funds in a Guernsey account, which Tommy Soeharto has claimed [to be his] that are allegedly proceeds from a crime, will continue to be informally frozen until Tommy Soeharto can prove that the source of the money is clean," the Asset Tracking Working Group said through a press release made available to tribunenews.com on Wednessay.

Tommy's company, Garnet Investment Limited, is caught in a dispute with the Indonesian government at the Guernsey court over funds he allegedly amassed through corrupt practices.

The funds frozen by FIS at the Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) Paribas in Guernsey amount to 36 million Euros (Rp 435 billion).

Indonesia Corruption Watch member Adnan Topan Husodo, who is also part of the working group, said Tommy had been unable to declare the source of the funds legal since the FIS first refused to give their consent to a withdrawal of the funds nine years ago.

"The decision by the Guernsey Court of Appeals is a historic moment in the global effort to eradicate money laundering," Adnan said. (The Jakarta Post)