Earlier this year, a former consultant, Lee Boon Siong, of the local arm of Prudential (one of the UK’s largest insurers) sought $40m (£21.8m) in damages after PT Prudential Life Assurance, Indonesia’s leading investment-linked insurance company, terminated an agent recruiting and training contract with him in late 2003.
The Indonesian court ruled Lee was owed $400,000 (£218,000). Under Indonesian law, any company with more than one unpaid debt can be declared bankrupt by a commercial judge, and in late April 2004 the Central Jakarta Commercial Court declared PT Prudential Life Assurance bankrupt.
