Indonesian police yesterday said that Interpol has issued red notices, the closest to an international arrest warrant, for three Chinese executives suspected of fraud linked to a more than US$800 million Sinopec oil terminal development in Indonesia.
China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (中國石油化工), or Sinopec, is the second major Chinese state oil firm in less than three years to find staff facing allegations of corruption in Indonesia, where the resources sector is riddled with graft, and legal and contractual uncertainty.
“The three red notices have been published for those wanted people,” Indonesian National Police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said.
Indonesian authorities filed a request for Interpol assistance on Feb. 21 regarding the three executives, suspects in the alleged embezzlement of an undisclosed sum of money from the West Point Terminal project, Amar said.
He identified the three as West Point Terminal finance director Zhang Jun, chief executive Feng Zhigang and chairman Ye Zhijun.
A red notice is Interpol’s highest alert — a request to locate and provisionally arrest an individual pending extradition. It is not an international arrest warrant as Interpol cannot compel any member nation to arrest an individual who is the subject of a red notice.
Indonesia is routinely ranked by watchdog Transparency International as one of the world’s most corrupt nations.
Former Indonesian minister of energy and mineral resources Jero Wacik is serving an eight-year prison term for involvement in extortion and kickbacks worth about US$840,000.
Defrizal Djamaris, a lawyer representing West Point Terminal’s 5 percent stakeholder, PT Mas Capital Trust, said its reported suspicions of fraud on the project to police in 2015.
The red notices were issued because the three executives had left the nation and “not cooperated” with police investigations, Djamaris said.
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