Indonesia aims to recoup nearly US$8bil of Asian financial crisis debt

JAKARTA, June 8 (Reuters): Indonesia has formed a task force that includes law enforcement officials to go after nearly US$8 billion of unrepaid state funds handed out to bank owners during the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, ministers have announced.

The government provided billions of dollars of financial support to troubled banks during the crisis to keep them afloat as South-East Asia's largest economy slumped amid riots that helped topple late strongman president Suharto.