Indonesia Gojek Founder Warns of Investor Concerns in Graft Defence Plea
LAW & COURT - JAKARTA, June 2 - A former Indonesian education minister and the founder of the country’s largest start-up warned on Tuesday that investors have been spooked by growing legal risks in Southeast Asia’s largest economy, as he delivered his final defence plea in a high-profile corruption case.
Prosecutors alleged that former minister Nadiem Makarim had been involved in improper laptop procurement during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to $125.64 million in state losses.
Makarim, who resigned as chief executive of technology start-up Gojek in 2019 to serve as education minister until 2024, has been accused of enriching himself to the tune of around 809 billion rupiah ($46.33 million) through the procurement of Chromebook laptops and Chrome OS for schools between 2020 and 2022, prosecutors have said.
They alleged that Makarim created tender specifications that only fit the Chrome system to “make Google the sole controller of the education ecosystem in Indonesia”.
Standing before a panel of judges on Tuesday, Makarim denied his involvement in the procurement of the laptops and cast doubt over the veracity of the prosecutors’ claims that the laptops were more expensive than necessary.
“Experts and witnesses have said: there were no state losses, no law violations, no self-enrichment or enriching others as well as corporations, no mens rea,” he said.
Google has not been indicted.
Makarim said Google’s investment in Gojek was separate from the procurement. In January, Google said its investments in Gojek-related entities occurred between 2017 and 2021, most of whichpre-dated Makarim’s appointment as minister.
Makarim, a Harvard Business School graduate, said potential investors in Indonesia were worried by the legal uncertainties in his case and by the criminalisation â??of professionals.
“Business communities see a bad precedent from this case because they don’t understand why the case was put on trial.”
The court has so far imposed jail sentences of up to four and a half years on three officials linked to the ministry for their involvement in the case, including a technology consultant sentenced last month.