Editor’s note: updated with response from Nadiem Makaram
An Indonesian court on Tuesday ruled that Nadiem Makarim, Co-Founder of tech giant Gojek and a former education minister, was guilty of corruption and sentenced him to 10 years in prison, Reuters reported.
Makarim, 41, has protested his innocence, saying the case against him is politically motivated — an assertion that has found support from academics and rights activists, the report added.
The verdict was delivered by the Jakarta Corruption Court, where presiding judge Purwanto S. Abdullah also imposed a fine of Rp 1 billion ($55,000). The panel of five judges read the ruling during a hearing at the Central Jakarta District Court, local media Jakarta Globe.id reported.
In a Linkedin post on Tuesday late afternoon, Makarim said he will appeal immediately and “keep fighting” for his kids, family and the Indonesia he still love.
“The verdict is in, and it’s as bad as I feared: 10 years in prison, plus a further 5 years and 6 months if I can’t pay the Rp809 billion restitution. I don’t have that money — never have, never touched it — and the prosecutors and judges knew this,” he wrote in the post. “So that’s a sentence of 15 and a half years.”
“I will appeal immediately, for the sake of truth, for the young people, the professionals, everyone innocent who’s being criminalized,” he wrote. His Linkedin page is managed by his legal team and posting on his behalf.
According to Bloomberg, Makarim was charged in relation to a decision to purchase more than a million Chromebooks using Google’s ChromeOS for schools from 2020 to 2022. Prosecutors have accused him of overpaying for laptops and software, ignoring internal evaluations, and receiving Rp 809 billion as an alleged reward linked to the procurement, pointing to Google’s investment in his former company as evidence of conflict.
Makarim denied all charges, arguing that the prices paid were below-market, that the internal evaluations were outdated and at odds with the urgent demands of schooling during the Covid-19 pandemic. His lawyers argued the alleged gains were standard pre-IPO administrative restructuring funds that never flowed to him personally.
His defence also argued that prosecutors failed to prove bad intent, personal enrichment or a direct link between the laptop program and Google’s investment in Gojek-related entities.
Makarim, who left Gojek in 2019 to join the cabinet under then president Joko Widodo, has warned that the case could deter professionals from entering public service and spook investors worried about legal uncertainty in Indonesia, the report added.
The verdict can still be appealed by either the prosecution or the defense, according to Jakarta Globe.id.
Featured photo credits: Nadiem Makarim’s Linkedin page
Indonesia detains Gojek founder and former minister as suspect in graft case – report