Capital Briefs: Sale, $300,000 Fine Ordered in Lippo Case

BOT Corp. of Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, agreed Friday to pay a $300,000 fine and to divest at least 98% of the voting shares of Lippo Bank of Los Angeles, the Federal Reserve Board said.

BOT agreed to forfeit any profit from Lippo Bank's sale, which must occur within 10 months. The Fed said BOT and one of its owners, James T. Riady, violated U.S. banking laws by taking control of the California bank.

BOT and Mr. Riady denied any wrongdoing. Mr. Riady's family controls Lippo Group, a conglomerate based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Congress investigated Lippo Group's contributions to the Democratic National Committee during the 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns.

Lippo Bank, which has $100 million of assets, agreed last November to be acquired by Commercial Bank of San Francisco for $20 million. But that deal fell through in March when Commercial Bank failed to raise enough money.

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