BRE-X GOLD SCAM GEOLOGIST FAKED DEATH, MAY STILL BE ALIVE
by Andreas Harsono
American Reporter Correspondent
Jakarta, Indonesia
JAKARTA, Feb. 5 -- An Indonesian investigative journalist said today that
Filipino geologist Michael de Guzman, who was involved in one of the
biggest gold scams in the world, is very likely still alive to enjoy his
fortune.
Freelance writer Bondan Winarno, who works for the World Bank, published
his finding on the Busang scam in a book entitled "Bre-X: Sebungkah Emas di
Kaki Langit" ("A Pot of Gold at The End of the Rainbow") which became
available in Jakarta book stores last month.
The book chronicles how de Guzman and his assistants at Canadian company
Bre-X Minerals Ltd. tampered with gold samples in the jungle of Kalimantan
and cheated many mining consultants, governments and investors on both
sides of the Pacific out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Winarno's theory is that de Guzman arranged his own death, saying in an
interview with this newspaper last month and in a discussion with
Indonesian journalists on Thursday that he had traveled to Canada, the
United States, the Philippines and Busang in eastern Kalimantan to find
evidence.
"It's very likely that de Guzman is still alive, but I don't know where,"
said Winarno, adding that he feels de Guzman may live someplace like
Hawaii, where his appearance would lead him to be mistaken for a native
Hawaiian.
One of de Guzman's four wives as well as a colleague were quoted as saying
that de Guzman had false teeth in his upper jaw. But both Indonesian and
Filipino doctors who performed autopsies on a body claimed to be de
Guzman's corpse said that it had no false teeth.
"His family also refused to give his dentals record to the Philippines
authorities," said Winarno, adding that he was also suspicious after
finding that the de Guzman grave in Manila had never been visited by family
members even two weeks after the burial.
Diplomat Nathaniel Imperial of the Philippines embassy to Jakarta admitted
Friday that a lot of speculation has arisen about whether de Guzman's death
was faked.
"I have to consult our records and see whether it's a valid statement," the
diplomat said.
Imperial said a Filipino diplomat went to Busang to seal de Guzman's
casket, but added that the dead body had decomposed and was difficult to
identify.
But journalists who packed the discussion on Thursday said that if
Winarno's theory is right, Canadian, Philippines and Indonesian police
should renew their investigation and find the Filipino geologist.
Goenawan Mohamad, a respected journalist who edits Indonesia's leading
Tempo news weekly, spoke very highly of Winarno, calling the journalist a
"decent and correct" writer.
It was widely reported two years ago that de Guzman had jumped from a
helicopter on March 19, 1997 when flying from Samarinda, a provincial city
in eastern Kalimantan, to the Busang site, around 300 kilometers northwest
of Samarinda, leaving behind a suicide notes that basically said he was
committing suicide because of a very painful case of hepatitis B.
Indonesian police said the pilot and the engineer, the only two witnesses,
had seen de Guzman writing letters and putting them in a bag just before
they felt a gust of wind against their heads. They looked behind themselves
and their passenger was gone, sthey said, de Guzman having jumped from a
height of 800 feet.
At the time, the respected geologist was the object of a worldwide media
blitz that involved both Canada and Indonesia and several huge corporations
that were owners of stock inflated by the news of de Guzman's find of a $50
billion gold mine in Busang. When the samples proved taintedand new samples
were taken, the con game fell apart and de Guzman -- the lone person with
all the answers -- supposedly died in his suicide plunge.
Winarno, himself an amateur parachutist, questioned the conditions of the
remains of alleged de Guzman, saying that he once witnessed those of a
friend whose parachute failed to open and fell from a height of 1,500 feet.
"My friend's remains didn't look like a human body anymore. It was only a
bunch of meat and bones. Indeed, 800 feet is only a half of 1,500 feet. But
at least, the dead body should be between the shape of a human and a bunch
of meat,' said Winarno on Thursday.
Quoting a forensic examiner who examined the body, Winarno said that the
dead body most probably fell from the height of a coconut tree rather than
from a chopper.
"We don't know whose body it is," Winarno said. "But that's not difficult
-- to find a dead body in Kalimantan."
The Calgary-based Bre-X claimed in February 1996 that it had found a
deposit of 40 million ounces of gold in Busang. That announcement
galvanized sales of Bre-X shares, increasing the price from 27 Canadian
cents per share levels of 1988 to $201.75 Canadian dollar by May 1996.
"If de Guzman could create such a complicated and highly sophisticated
scam, what is the difficulty of fixing his own death?" Winarno asked,
adding that instead of Bre-X president David Walsh or Bre-X senior
geologist John Felderhof, he believed that it is de Guzman who masterminded
the scam with the help of some other Filipino geologists in Busang.
Several months after the February announcement, Bre-X even claimed that the
Busang deposit could possibly reach 200 million ounces, making it a world
record find. But it turned out to be a scam after US company Freeport
McMoran performed a so-called due diligence report in March 1997,
apparently prompting de Guzman to engineer his faked death. Winarno
formerly wrote a weekly column for the Tempo and Kontan news weeklies and
headed a fishing firm. He now works as a business and media consultant for
the World Bank.
Winarno is now also facing a libel suit filed by the disgraced former
minister of mines and energy for Indonesia, I.B. Sudjana, and his son,
Dharma Yoga Sudjana, because of the 280-page book. In Bahasa Indonesia, the
title translates as "a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow." |
