Former Indonesian Education Minister and Gojek co-founder Nadiem Makarim was found guilty of corruption over a pandemic-era procurement of Chromebooks for schools, a ruling likely to intensify investor concerns about how Southeast Asia’s largest economy distinguishes graft from disputed policy and business decisions.
The Central Jakarta District Court on Tuesday sentenced Makarim to 10 years in prison, lower than the 18 years sought by prosecutors.
Judges, reading from parts of a more than 1,100-page decision, also ordered him to pay financial penalties of more than 800 billion rupiah ($44.7 million) or face an additional five years in prison. Prosecutors had sought more than 5.7 trillion rupiah.
The 41-year-old 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 accused him of overpaying for laptops and software, ignoring internal evaluations, and receiving 809 billion rupiah 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Makarim denied all charges, arguing that the prices paid were below-market, that the internal evaluations were outdated and at odds with the urgent demands of schooling during the Covid-19 pandemic.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 also argued the alleged gains was standard pre-IPO administrative restructuring funds that never flowed to him personally.
His defense 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 was greeted ahead of the hearing by dozens of supporters, many of them Gojek drivers wearing the company’s signature green jackets. The Harvard Business School graduate wiped away tears as supporters offered prayers, embraced him and shook his hand. Some sang in Indonesian: “Free Nadiem now.”
Inside the courthouse, Makarim, dressed in a batik shirt, sat before the panel of judges for more than four hours as they read out their decision.
The case has been viewed as a test of legal certainty in Indonesia, where a series of recent graft rulings have raised questions over whether disputed policy choices and business risks can later be treated as criminal acts.
Former executives of state-backed venture capital firms recently were sentenced over failed investments in agritech startup TaniHub, a case critics says effectively criminalized standard market risk. Also contentious was last year’s jailing of former Trade Minister Thomas Lembong over sugar import permits a decade ago despite no evidence of personal financial gain. He was ultimately released after President Prabowo Subianto granted abolition.
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.
