The head of the Indonesian taxi firm at the centre of the Peregrine collapse yesterday denied any wrongdoing but warned it could be a 'very long time' before his firm repays its debts.
'No one can blame me for the collapse,' said Jopie Widjaja, president and director of Steady Safe.
In his first interview since Peregrine called in liquidators on Monday, Mr Widjaja said he wanted to clear his name because he had 'heard a lot of damaging accusations about my company's role in Peregrine's downfall'.
'We did not do anything wrong. To say we did would just not be reasonable,' he said. 'It was just a normal deal . . . a very good deal that was good for everyone. It was just unfortunate timing.
'There was no bribery or anything like that . . . everything was done properly with a lot of research. We are a good business and we will be strong again in the future.
'Of course we want to pay the loan back but we have a lot of work to do . . . it could be a burden for our company for a very long time,' said the 41-year-old Jakarta-born Chinese businessman.