| Sjahril Sabirin | ||||||
The email to Euromoney from Bank of Indonesia said simply that the governor wouldn't now be attending the Borrowers and Issuers Conference in Singapore so an interview wasn't possible.
In fact governor Sjahril Sabirin may miss the next two or three annual conferences in Singapore. That depends on the conditions of any parole he may be granted. On March 13 he was convicted of corruption by an Indonesian court and sentenced to three years in prison. Yet despite the conviction he refuses to give up his post. And while an appeal is being heard he is free to go about directing monetary policy.
Sabirin's conviction stems from a scandal in 1999 when $80 million was supposed to be transferred from the central bank to bail out Bank Bali but ended up in former president BJ Habibie's re-election campaign kitty.