The Crime Behind the Ledger: False Recording and White-Collar Criminal Liability in Islamic Banking

Abstract

The rapid expansion of Islamic banking is frequently compromised by sophisticated financial misconduct, notably false recording in bank ledgers that conceals fictitious financing and threatens institutional stability. This study analyzes the legal construction of false recording as a white-collar offense in Islamic banking and clarifies the scope of individual criminal liability under Indonesian positive law and Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh jinayah). Adopting a doctrinal legal research design, this study integrates statutory, conceptual, case, and comparative doctrinal approaches, utilizing primary legal materials such as Law No. 21 of 2008 on Islamic Banking as amended by Law No. 4 of 2023 (P2SK Law), alongside recent judicial proceedings like the BPRS Gayo case. The findings reveal that ledger falsification is legally constructed not as a mere administrative irregularity, but as a deliberate white-collar crime violating both statutory provisions and core Sharia imperatives like tadlis and khianah. This crime typically perpetrated by directors, officers, and external accomplices, and affirm the normative convergence between positive penal law and Islamic criminal accountability. The study recommends personal liability across hierarchical levels and strengthened internal controls to safeguard the integrity of Islamic banking.