| Publicity: | It’s where counting your millions or even your billions is a boom industry in itself. Indonesia is now home to more than 60,000 millionaires and there are now 20 billionaires wheeling and dealing across the nation - twice as many as there were just two years ago. |
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| Indonesia’s financial sector is sizzling with deals - and scandal - from the very top down. |
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| At the top, former deputy governor of Indonesia’s central bank - Miranda Goeltom - is the star witness in corruption court proceedings that have already seen a number of politicians despatched to jail for receiving bribes to vote her into the job. Ms Goeltom has not been charged and denies knowledge of the deals but the saga has dented the image of Bank Indonesia which after all is the major regulatory authority for Indonesia’s commercial banks. |
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| Banks like Citibank. |
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| That’s where – until recently – you’d have found snappy dresser and cosmetic surgery enthusiast Malinda Dee. She was a Citibank star who provided direct services to a list of super-rich clients. She barged into Indonesia’s social scene, clad in expensive gowns, and amassed a suite of expensive properties and a garage filled with prestige cars. |
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| Malinda Dee is now in jail awaiting trial on charges she skimmed millions from her customers. |
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| “I was asking a friend of mine, ‘who is that girl with big boobs?’ because I feel uneasy to see a person that’s that so striking in a negative sense.” MIRANDA GOELTOM - former Deputy Governor Indonesia Bank |
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| Indonesia Correspondent Matt Brown examines these two cases which highlight concerns about endemic corruption within the banking sector. Practices that took root and grew during the reign of President Soeharto, continue to flourish long after he’s gone. |
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| “Whether it’s a dark alley of debt collectors or the Ferraris and Porsches of Malinda, it just shows how acceptable it is in this country to make money by any means. By somewhat questionable methods.” DIMAS - Editor, Jakarta Post |
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| And with consumer credit booming in Indonesia there’s also concern about heavy handed tactics being used on customers who fall behind in their payments. Foreign Correspondent investigates the case of one credit card customer - Irzen Octa – who was called into a Citibank branch to discuss his debt and wound up dead on the floor. |
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| Jakarta smog and high rise/ General views | Music | 00:00 |
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| BROWN: It’s a big place, getting bigger and busier. | 00:08 |
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| Music | 00:11 |
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| BROWN: Twenty four million people – that’s a tenth of Indonesia’s entire population – call the capital, Jakarta, home. | 00:17 |
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| Music | 00:24 |
| Miranda intercut | MIRANDA GOELTOM: “It’s big. It’s amazing. It’s a lively country”. | 00:27 |
| Luxury Jakarta | Music | 00:33 |
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| BROWN: It’s buzzing with a renewed sense of wealth and prosperity. Many of the country’s 60,000 millionaires live here and do business here. Even being a billionaire is a boom industry. They’ve doubled in number to twenty in just two years. Of course being conspicuously wealthy in crowded and jammed Jakarta has its challenges and so the super rich have to take their super cars to private race tracks to play. | 00:36 |
| Private race track | Music | 01:06 |
| Fashion parades | BROWN: While a growing army of fashionistas can head to one of the city’s private fashion shows for their expensive and very exclusive designer wear. | 01:10 |
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| Music | 01:19 |
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| DIMAS: “People think | 01:23 |
| Dimas/Fashion show | high rolling socialites in Jakarta should have fancy cars, nice apartments, fabulous clothes, plastic surgery”. | 01:25 |
| Luxury items | Music | 01:34 |
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| BROWN: For many of Indonesia’s showy, moneyed elite, it’s see and be seen and a culture of get rich – any way you can. | 01:37 |
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| Music | 01:46 |
| Andre opens doors to atelier | BROWN: Andre Frankie is one of Indonesia’s leading designers of the kebaya, a traditional Javanese blouse. | 01:50 |
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| Music | 01:59 |
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| BROWN: He is couturier to the rich and powerful, to the famous and infamous alike. From his studio tucked away in Jakarta’s southern suburbs, he’s gained a unique perspective on the extraordinary and sometimes tainted lives of Jakarta’s well-to-do. | 02:03 |
| Andre | ANDRE FRANKIE: “They have fantastic sports cars, like Ferrari, Maserati and Lamborghini. | 02:23 |
| Ade in fitting | Sometimes they even rent a private jet to go overseas”. BROWN: One of Andre’s customers, Ade, has popped in for a fitting. | 02:39 |
| Andre drawing kebaya design | ADE: “I like all his designs. | 02:52 |
| Ade . Super: | In my opinion he made Indonesian traditional dress very beautiful”. | 02:57 |
| Kebaya fitting | BROWN: Ade is typical of Andre Frankie’s clientele. She’s one of a loyal group of big spending women with a passion for fashion. ADE: “We going to the movies together.... dinner.... to see a fashion show, and also jet to Bali | 03:06 |
| Ade | travelling in Indonesia and abroad”. | 03:24 |
| Kebaya fitting | Music | 03:28 |
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| BROWN: There’s plenty of fun, mischief and gossip, | 03:34 |
| Newspaper/Magazine headline/ Frankie publication | and right now there’s no end of scandal. Jakarta is transfixed by two major criminal dramas exposing the dark side of high finance Indonesia style, and the central characters happen to feature as models in a lavish publication promoting Andre Frankie’s flamboyant designs. | 03:37 |
| Frankie and reporter look at publication | “Are these real diamonds?” ANDRE FRANKIE: “Yeah real diamonds”.
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| Malinda photo in publication | BROWN: “Really? Nothing fake? ANDRE FRANKIE: “Nothing”. BROWN: This is Malinda Dee, a social queen bee and a big time banker. | 04:03 |
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| She might normally be here in Andre’s studio being fitted for a spectacular garment, only she’s in gaol right now awaiting trial. More on Malinda Dee later, but first let’s go straight to the top. | 04:14 |
| Miranda photo in publication | Miranda Goeltom was one of Indonesia’s most influential figures, a deputy governor at the country’s central bank, Bank Indonesia. | 04:33 |
| Frankie and reporter look at publication | ANDRE FRANKIE: “Brilliant in blue. Brilliant lady, Miranda. Very nice lady also but quite strong and protective”. | 04:42 |
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| BROWN: “Are you surprised that she’s in controversy?” ANDRE FRANKIE: “Yeah”. | 04:52 |
| Miranda. Super: | MIRANDA GOELTOM: “Well, fashion show of course is a side work, but my main work is more on economic issues”. | 04:59 |
| Miranda with Soehartos | Music | 05:06 |
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| BROWN: She’s as well connected as she is well dressed, rubbing shoulders with the children of former President Soeharto. | 05:09 |
| Andre Frankie fashion show | They sponsored this recent Andre Frankie fashion show. | 05:16 |
| Miranda arrives at trial | But these days Miranda Goeltom doesn’t spend as much time as she’d like by the catwalk. She’s starring as a witness in the corruption court, in a case focusing on how she rose so high in the Central Bank. | 05:25 |
| Inside corruption court | In 2004 Miranda Goeltom was nominated by the then President, Megawati Sukarnoputri, to be deputy governor of Bank Indonesia. Prosecutors say her election win was assured when someone paid politicians from Megawati’s party and their allies, 2.8 million dollars in travellers’ cheques to vote for her. | 05:41 |
| Miranda in court | MIRANDA GOELTOM: (in courtroom) “Let me answer, Judge. I wish I could scream, this case is not “the case of Miranda”. (lawyer interrupts) Lawyer, I didn’t know about any travellers’ cheques”. | 06:05 |
| Gaoled politicians | BROWN: Four politicians are already in gaol for accepting the bribes. MIRANDA GOELTOM: “Well I have sympathy for them because it’s not clear where the money comes from and what the money’s for. | 06:20 |
| Miranda | Is it because they are electing me, or is it for election which is.... it was the year of election. It’s not been proven yet”. | 06:33 |
| Inside courtroom | BROWN: No one’s been charged with paying the bribes. In fact it’s one of the gaping holes in the case. For her part, Miranda continues to insist she knows nothing. | 06:49 |
| Miranda | MIRANDA GOELTOM: “Why should I bribe them? Logically I shouldn’t bribe them, right, because automatically they already supported me”. BROWN: “Isn’t it just part of the system, the way things work?” MIRANDA GOELTOM: “No, I don’t think so. I never give money. I never give money for anything”. | 07:00 |
| Socialite gathering | BROWN: As for Miranda’s woes, in socialite circles they’re viewed simply as one of the pitfalls of power and politics. | 07:20 |
| Ade | ADE: “Maybe that’s the Indonesian political you know?” BROWN: “The way things work?” | 07:28 |
| Socialite gathering | ADE: “Yeah. We don’t know whether white or grey or black, that’s political”. | 07:35 |
| Ade | BROWN: “Always in the shadows?” ADE: “Yes”. | 07:42 |
| Fashion show | Music | 07:45 |
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| BROWN: If shadowy affairs permeate Indonesia’s top financial authority it won’t be a surprise to hear they’ve infiltrated the whole banking system | 07:48 |
| Malinda on catwalk | and that brings us back to Malinda Dee. Malinda Dee was a star at one of Andre’s high society fashion parades. For twenty-two years she worked for the US based financial giant, Citibank, rising to become a senior customer relations manager. | 08:04 |
| Andre’s atelier | Andre’s dresses sell for between one and ten thousand dollars a piece. Malinda Dee owned twenty of them. | 08:25 |
| Andre shows shoes. | “You made these for Malinda?” ANDRE FRANKIE: “Yeah”. BROWN: “Wow. | 08:36 |
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| Pink’s her favourite colour I guess”. ANDRE FRANKIE: “Yeah pin’s her favourite colour. | 08:39 |
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| Malinda Dee is one of my really good customers. They come here with bodyguard | 08:43 |
| Andre. Super: | and with the Hermes bag.... and with nice diamonds and all of the things.... with the nice watch”. | 08:50 |
| Malinda magazine covers | Music | 09:00 |
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| BROWN: When Malinda Dee burst onto the scene she quickly had heads turning and tongues wagging. ADE: “Three years ago with very nice style, | 09:06 |
| Ade | we call Barbie, you know Barbie? Like a doll - because everything is very perfect, not like me (laughs). This is perfect (touches her nose), everything perfect. That’s what we called Barbie”. | 09:17 |
| Malinda in magazines | Music | 09:31 |
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| ANDRE FRANKIE: “Malinda Dee is quite well known in high end society - | 09:34 |
| Andre | especially with her big breasts, everybody know her”. | 09:38 |
| Malinda on catwalk | Music | 09:42 |
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| MIRANDA GOELTOM: “I was asking a friend of mine, who is that girl with big boobs? Things like that, you know, | 09:51 |
| Miranda. Super: | because I feel uneasy to see a person that’s so striking in a negative sense”. BROWN: “You thought she was a bit vulgar?” MIRANDA GOELTOM: “Yeah. Not a bit, a lot”. BROWN: “A lot?” MIRANDA GOELTOM: “Yes”. | 09:57 |
| Malinda on catwalk | Music | 10:17 |
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| BROWN: Having barged her way into the ranks of Jakarta’s elite, Malinda Dee persuaded hundreds of clients with a minimum fifty thousand dollars to spare to open priority banking accounts with Citibank. She offered a service where there were no queues and few questions asked. | 10:19 |
| Luxury homes | Malinda made a fortune for Citibank and along the way, managed to acquire a portfolio of personal assets beyond the wildest dreams of a humble bank employee - including five luxury homes. | 10:41 |
| Luxury cars | It wasn’t just big houses and high fashion. Malinda Dee maintained a stunning collection of luxury cars. For all appearances she was completely in tune with the high rollers. It’s a sweet sound but one Malinda Dee’s not likely to hear for quite a while. It turned out to be just a short step from the catwalk to the walk of shame. Early this year | 10:58 |
| Malinda arrives at court | a customer complained that Malinda made unauthorised withdrawals from his account. She’s now in gaol awaiting trial for allegedly stealing around three million dollars from her clients. | 11:35 |
| Malinda emerges from police station with lawyer | Her lawyer Batara Simbolon’s defence doesn’t appear to be helpful. He says she simply borrowed the money from her clients to invest elsewhere. BATARA SIMBOLON: “Usually what happened was, Malinda would use the clients’ money | 11:50 |
| Simbolon | as well as other money she received from her bonus and other gains. Then she would return the money”. | 12:05 |
| Malinda being driven away | BROWN; Not only did the Citibanker convince her clients to sign blank transaction forms, the bank itself failed to properly supervise her activities and it ignored a rule designed to stop fraud and money laundering. BATARA SIMBOLON: Malinda’s the Golden Girl at Citibank because she’s received various awards | 12:17 |
| Simbolon | and she’s never been punished for any of her actions”. | 12:36 |
| Jakarta Post offices/meeting | BROWN: For Citibank the Malinda Dee affair is a public relations nightmare but for newspaper editors, including the Jakarta Post’s Dimas, it’s a rare combination of sobering business news and tabloid gold. DIMAS: “It’s actually a financial story which hits home to every economist and housewife at the same time. | 12:40 |
| Dimas. Super: | It also becomes interesting because supposedly with this so many billions of rupiah, I think only two or three people have actually come out and said oh yeah I was one of her victims. Which leads again to questions about who are they actually?” | 13:04 |
| Citibank building | BROWN: It turns out some of Malinda’s high rollers were actually former government officials. | 13:23 |
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| DIMAS: “If it’s public officials definitely | 13:32 |
| Dimas | they would not come out because then you’re not of this high network group”. BROWN: “They shouldn’t have that money?” DIMAS: “They shouldn’t have that sort of money, yes”. | 13:34 |
| Husein. Super: | YUNUS HUSEIN: “Yeah that is also a big question not only for me, but also for the public”. | 13:44 |
| Citibank signage | BROWN: The anti money laundering agency began to ask, was Citibank effectively a clearing house for ill gotten gains, undermining the fight against corruption?” | 13:53 |
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| YUNUS HUSEIN: “We want to know why so many former government officials are in the private banking of this bank”. BROWN: “Are you concerned | 14:10 |
| Husein | that the banks, and in this case Citibank, didn’t want to know the answer?” YUNUS HUSEIN: [laughs] “Yeah, Citibank did not give sufficient answers to us about this”. | 14:19 |
| Citibank ex | BATARA SIMBOLON: “For the bank, it is not important where the money is from. | 14:36 |
| Simbolon | What’s important is that customers keep their money at the bank”. | 14:39 |
| Bank exteriors/signage | BROWN: Citibank wouldn’t be interviewed for this program. When the Central Bank investigated it found widespread problems, not just at Citibank, but across Indonesia’s private banking sector. It banned Citibank from recruiting new high rollers for a year and it imposed tough new rules on the whole industry. But Citibank is in even deeper trouble. While it was losing millions at the top end and not even noticing, at the bottom end its heavy handed recovery of debt has brought a dark cloud over the bank and the whole banking system. | 14:46 |
| Esi and daughters in cemetery | It’s the end of forty days of mourning for Esi Ronaldi and her two daughters, Citra and Grace. They’re visiting the grave of their loving husband and father, Irzen Octa. ESI RONALDI: “I really can’t imagine what will happen in the future. | 15:32 |
| Esi | He was very protective of his kids. He liked to have his kids in the house because he said it is not safe to play outside”. | 15:52 |
| Esi and daughters at grave | BROWN: Before he died, Irzen Octa had accrued a credit card debt of five thousand dollars. Six debt collectors working on contract for Citibank showed up at the family home. ESI RONALDI: “We were scared because they only have muscles but no brains – and were temperamental. | 16:06 |
| Esi | They even asked about our children which made me worried they’d kidnap them”. | 16:24 |
| Bank interior. Stylised montage | Music | 16:32 |
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| BROWN: The next day Irzen Octa went to his Citibank branch. He was ushered into a debt collection counselling room called the Cleo Room. What happened inside is hotly contested, but what’s certain is that Irzen Octa wound up dead on the floor. ESI RONALDI: “It was worse than getting struck by lightning. | 16:37 |
| Family leave grave | The three of us were crying on the bed | 17:09 |
| Esi | and my eldest daughter Grace cried, “Daddy, why did you leave me as an orphan”?” | 17:14 |
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| BROWN: Irzen Octa’s death touched a raw nerve with a public constantly bombarded by banks pushing credit. | 17:34 |
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| DIMAS: “I think it hits at the heart of most Indonesians. Almost everyone has been offered a credit card and almost everyone has | 17:42 |
| Dimas. Super: | been telephoned or visited by a debt collector. | 17:52 |
| Kaligis in office with reporter | BROWN: The drama grew when Irzen Octa’s family turned to celebrity lawyer, Otto Cornellius Kaligis. | 17:57 |
| Kaligis and reporter with photos and golf putter | “What’s this? OTTO CORNELLIUS KALIGIS: Soeharto. Old man President. BROWN: This is his… OTTO CORNELLIUS KALIGIS: Yes, yes, yes. His golf putter. | 18:07 |
| Putting in office | BROWN: O.C. Kaligis worked for the former dictator, Soeharto, when he was accused of corruption. In fact he’s fond of brandishing all sorts of powerful connections. | 18:15 |
| With photo of Obama | OTTO CORNELLIUS KALIGIS: (looking at photo) “This is Obama, right?” BROWN: “You’re in the Oval Office”. OTTO CORNELLIUS KALIGIS: “Yes, oval room, oval room”. | 18:26 |
| Exhumation of Octa’s body | BROWN: O.C. Kaligis advised the family to sue Citibank for more than three hundred million dollars and ordered the exhumation of Octa’s body. The government’s pathologist and police issued conflicting autopsy reports. The first noted serious bruises, the second blamed Octa’s death on a stroke. | 18:36 |
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| OTTO CORNELLIUS KALIGIS: “Two different contradictory autopsy reports. Of course it’s questionable for me. Why apparently it’s not done in a legal and proper manner”. | 19:00 |
| Kaligis. Super: | BROWN: “You think there’s a cover up?” OTTO CORNELLIUS KALIGIS: “Yes, that’s for certain, a cover up”. | 19:15 |
| On-site autopsy | BROWN: The family’s pathologist performed an autopsy beside the grave and confirmed their worst fears. | 19:21 |
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| PATHOLOGIST: “We have found bruises on the victim caused by blunt force trauma | 19:30 |
| Pathologist | all over the body – on the chest, the leg and thigh”. | 19:35 |
| Return of body to grave | Music | 19:40 |
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| BROWN: The cause of Octa’s death is still unresolved, but his widow Esi has become a lightning rod for concern about big banks and their handling of bad debt. | 19:45 |
| Esi | ESI RONALDI: “Because lots of people have the same kind of experience of being terrorised, one even had a stroke”. | 19:59 |
| Light reflections. Jakarta at night | BROWN: Octa’s case throws the spotlight on Jakarta’s underbelly, where banks and big business engage stand over men to do their dirty work. | 20:08 |
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| OTTO CORNELLIUS KALIGIS: “Some of them are ex criminals and some are people who don’t have any work, | 20:23 |
| Kaligis | but at least can intimidate and can be brutal against the debtor”. | 20:28 |
| Jakarta. Night. | BROWN: “Thugs and the unemployed”. OTTO CORNELLIUS KALIGIS: “Unemployed usually, yes. They come from the dark world of the society”. | 20:36 |
| Debt collectors in custody, being led into interview room | BROWN: The debt collectors working for Citibank were questioned by the police and are now in custody. Citibank says they did nothing wrong, but at the same time it argues it’s not responsible for their actions because they were contractors, not bank employees. | 20:43 |
| Security guards | ESI RONALDI: “Citibank must be responsible because my husband died at their branch. | 21:09 |
| Esi | He went there with goodwill, but he died there”. | 21:14 |
| Citibank exterior | BROWN: Octa’s death triggered a wave of sanctions against Citibank. It’s been forced to hire 1400 in-house debt collectors after it was banned from hiring contractors for a year. It’s also been banned from issuing new credit cards for two years and from opening new branches for a year. | 21:22 |
| Luxury cars | DIMAS: “Whether it’s the darker alleys of debt collectors or the Ferraris and Porches of Malinda, it just shows how | 21:46 |
| Dimas | acceptable it is in this country to make money by any means, by somewhat questionable methods”. | 21:56 |
| Bank Indonesia exterior | BROWN: And as we’ve seen, the questionable methods go right to the top. It’s not only the Miranda Goeltom bribery affair that’s sullied Bank Indonesia, but a history of endemic vote buying and influence peddling. | 22:06 |
| Central Bank governors and officials | Central Bank governors, their deputies and senior officials have been gaoled for crimes including corruption, misappropriation of funds and bribing politicians to pass laws on the running of the bank. | 22:23 |
| Anti-corruption sign in foyer | MIRANDA GOELTOM: “The culture in the past, it’s not only in parliamentary people but almost across the board, that in Indonesia they don’t observe the rules. | 22:42 |
| Miranda | Authority means money. Authority means you have the authority to do whatever you want to do and bribing is very, very common”. | 22:53 |
| Miranda leaves court | BROWN: And it’s taken its toll on Miranda Goeltom but she’s determined to continue playing a role in the economic future of her country. MIRANDA GOELTOM: “It’s a very unpleasant time for me. | 23:04 |
| Miranda | It hurts my feeling, it hurts my children’s and my husband’s feeling, my family’s feeling, but they all support me because they believe that I didn’t do anything. I didn’t give money, I didn’t ask people to give money. I didn’t promise anything. | 23:20 |
| Miranda gets into car | I really want this to be solved and be | 23:41 |
| Miranda | as transparent as possible”. | 23:46 |
| Jakarta | Music | 23:49 |
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| BROWN: The big credit rating agencies are just one step away from recommending investment in Indonesia. When that happens, billions more will flow into one of the most corrupt economies on earth. YUNUS HUSEIN: (laughing) “Yeah that’s our problem, yeah. | 23:55 |
| Husein | Corruption is a big problem in Indonesia”. | 24:13 |
| Credits | Reporter: Matt Brown Camera: David Cameron Editor: Simon Brynjolffssen Research: Ake Prihantari, Ari Wuryantama Producer: Mary Ann Jolley | 24:20 |