At Nadiem Makarim's Trial, Expert Explains Rp 5.2 Trillion Share Surge

JAKARTA - Former Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Nadiem Makarim explained that the Rp 5.2 trillion surge in GoTo shares originated from the founder’s tax on GoTo founder shares listed on the stock exchange in 2022.

Nadiem addressed the share surge when questioning Meidijati, a tax expert from the Directorate General of Taxes at the Ministry of Finance, during the continuation of the trial for the alleged corruption case in the procurement of Chromebook-based laptops.

“This is the misunderstanding in this trial that keeps being brought up regarding the Rp 5.2 trillion. For two reasons: it’s impossible for there to have been a share sale because it was prohibited by the OJK systemically,” Nadiem stated during the trial at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Monday (30/3/2026).

“And secondly, the Rp 5.2 trillion is the highest price in history because that’s the IPO price, right? Founder’s tax, yes?” Nadiem asked Meidijati.

Meidijati confirmed that the 2022 share split constituted founder’s tax shares.

“It is additional income for the founder’s shares, where when conducting the initial public offering of shares, IPO, an additional 0.5% is imposed based on the initial share price,” Meidijati explained.

As a result, Nadiem’s initial 9 million shares increased to 15 billion shares.

Then, each share is multiplied by the IPO share price of Rp 338.

“In this case, it’s Rp 338, sir. So the formula is 0.5 times the number of shares owned by Mr Nadiem, 15 billion or so after the stock split, multiplied by the IPO share price of Rp 338. It comes to Rp 5.2 (trillion),” Meidijati explained further.

During the trial, Nadiem mentioned that he could not sell his shares in 2023 and 2024 after GoTo’s IPO in 2022.

Nadiem is accused of enriching himself by Rp 809 billion. This figure is said to come from Google’s investment in Gojek or PT AKAB.

Nadiem is alleged to have abused his authority, making Google the sole controller of ICT procurement, including laptops, in Indonesia’s technology ecosystem.

This was done by directing the procurement study towards a single product, namely Chrome-based devices, which is a Google product.

Nadiem committed this act together with three other defendants: former Technology Consultant in the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology environment, Ibrahim Arief; Director of SMP in the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology from 2020–2021 as well as Budget User Representative (KPA), Mulyatsyah; and Director of SD in the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology from 2020–2021 as well as KPA, Sri Wahyuningsih.

For their actions, Nadiem and the other defendants are threatened with Article 2 Paragraph (1) and Article 3 jo. Article 18 of Law Number 31 of 1999 as amended and supplemented by Law Number 20 of 2001 on Amendments to Law Number 31 of 1999 on the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption jo. Article 55 paragraph (1) first of the Criminal Code.