An Indonesian court sentenced eFishery founder Gibran Huzaifah to nine years in prison on Wednesday, concluding a high-profile $300 million financial scandal that led to the collapse of one of Southeast Asia’s most celebrated startups.

The verdict was delivered at the Bandung District Court in Indonesia. A panel of judges found Gibran, the former CEO of the embattled startup, guilty of embezzlement and money laundering, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

eFishery was once considered as the crown jewel of Indonesia’s agritech sector. Gibran’s company racked up some $300 million of investor losses to become one of the region’s largest startup failures, the report added.

Gibran and his family present at the court hugged each other after the verdict was announced. The former CEO was also ordered to pay a fine of one billion rupiah. He has seven days to appeal the ruling, according to the report.

eFishery’s ultimate collapse dealt a blow to several of the world’s highest-profile investors, from SoftBank Group Corp and Temasek Holdings Pte to Peak XV (formerly Sequoia India) and Abu Dhabi’s 42XFund.

eFishery, which deployed feeders to fish and shrimp farmers in Indonesia, incurred several hundred million dollars in losses between 2018 and 2024. The business began unravelling after a board investigation revealed the company may have inflated its revenue and profit over several years.

The scandal triggered widespread scrutiny over regulatory oversight and due diligence standards in Southeast Asia’s venture capital markets.

Gibran’s nine-year sentence is slightly shorter than the 10 years originally proposed by state prosecutors in April. Prosecutors had accused Gibran and the two other executives of causing losses to the startup of more than 69 billion rupiah and damaging investor confidence, noting the defendants showed no remorse during the proceedings.

The two other ex-managers, Angga Hadrian Raditya and Andri Yadi, were sentenced to nine years and seven years in prison respectively. Angga, the former vice president of corporate finance and investor relations, and Andri, previously the startup’s vice president of artificial intelligence and Internet of Things, were also ordered to pay a 1 billion rupiah fine each, according to Bloomberg’s report.

Founded in 2013, eFishery said it is the first Aquaculture Technology startup in Asia that develops innovations in the aquaculture field. eFishery disrupts traditional fish farming methods and provides cutting edge solutions in the aquaculture ecosystem by offering an end-to-end platform that provides access to feed, financing, and market to fish and shrimp farmers.

eFishery aims to build an aquaculture ecosystem in Indonesia that is not only profitable but also sustainable to the farmers, buyers, and to all stakeholders, information from its Linkedin page showed.

eFishery announced it has raised $200 million in its Series D funding round in 2023, earning its unicorn status.

The round was led by Abu Dhabi-based global fund manager 42XFund and backed by Malaysia’s largest public sector pension fund, Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan) (KWAP), Switzerland-based asset manager responsAbility, early investor multi-stage venture capital firm 500 Global and other new investors, along with existing investors such as Northstar, Temasek, and SoftBank.

SoftBank, Temasek among eFishery investors facing near wipeout – report