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I have noticed the topic of Kantor Kita popping up on Bali expat forums and I have also read some articles in the Bali Times on the subject. I don’t know the full story but it seems that the owner of the company Esti Yuliani, also known as Julie Edmond embezzled millions of dollars in scam property deals in Bali.
Foreigners in Indonesia cannot buy property directly, so they often use nominee or Indonesian shelf companies to buy real estate. A great deal of trust needs to be placed in the company which helps organize the property transaction and it is not uncommon for foreign property investors to get burned in the process.
Esti Yuliani is now in police custody, while presumably awaiting trial. The company’s website says it is currently “under construction”.
It seems like Kantor Kita had built up a decent reputation, until now. It makes you wonder why they started scamming people. It is also going to be interesting to see what happens in the courts, if anyone can get their money back, since foreigners lost money buying land that they couldn’t legally buy in the first place.
Kantor Kita has been successfully duping clients very well for some time, including her first husband that took her to court for taking his office and company over when they split. I have it first hand that she paid the court judge 40 million IRD to settle the matter in her favour. Esti successfully duped many for a long time but was selective in who she took money from. Part of her success was that she understood that many new arrivals in Bali who needed a name on land documents did not have strong local connections and could not even imagine that a women, who spoke English so well, had an ex-pat husband, and had an English name could possibly rip them off.
Bravo Don Worthington! But the sentencing says nothing about returning the money so she will serve the remaining 17 months and then live happily and comfortably in her mansion in California or her apartment in Singapore. I assume there are other criminal cases pending. There was a blog from South Africa claiming she had stolen USD 10.0 Mil, and several others.
And what about all the smaller civil claims for lesser amounts from guys like me who cannot affort the legal costs involved? I guess she gets to keep our cash to fund an appeal and use for living expenses.
Pete