Judge: Rp809 Billion Replacement Payment to Nadiem Sourced from PT AKAB

The panel of judges at the Corruption Court in the Central Jakarta District Court has stated that the Rp809.59 billion in replacement funds imposed on defendant Nadiem Anwar Makarim originated from a flow of funds from PT Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa (PT AKAB) to PT Gojek Indonesia on 13 October 2021. Presiding Judge Purwanto Abdullah said the funds came from a Google investment that entered PT AKAB, which began with the issuance of a regulation by Nadiem in his capacity as Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology for the 2019-2024 period. “The defendant issued Minister of Education and Culture Regulation Number 5 of 2021, which locked in the Chrome Operating System (OS) specification in the procurement of Chromebooks worth more than Rp1.5 trillion,” said the Presiding Judge while reading the legal considerations during the verdict hearing at the Corruption Court on Tuesday. Through this policy, the Presiding Judge opined that Google subsequently realised an investment into PT AKAB of approximately 69 million US dollars in August 2021, occurring several months after the ministerial regulation was issued, as part of a total investment reaching 786.99 million US dollars. The panel of judges assessed that the temporal and substantive correlation between the issuance of a policy benefiting Google and the flow of Google’s investment into Nadiem’s corporate ecosystem was not a coincidence, but rather a tangible manifestation of the objective to benefit the corporation, which forms part of the elements of Article 3 of the Law on the Eradication of Corruption that has been proven in Nadiem’s case. “From the Google investment that entered PT AKAB, PT AKAB cleared capital to PT Gojek Indonesia amounting to Rp809 billion, which on the same day was returned as repayment of funds based on a loan agreement in a notarial deed by Jose Dima Satria,” said the Presiding Judge. Therefore, the Presiding Judge affirmed that the causal chain from Nadiem’s corrupt policy to the flow of funds amounting to Rp809.59 billion into his corporate ecosystem could be clearly traced. In the case of alleged corruption in the education digitalisation programme involving the procurement of Chromebook laptops and Chrome Device Management (CDM) within the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology for 2019-2022, Nadiem was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being proven to have committed corruption. In addition to the prison sentence, he was also given a criminal fine of Rp1 billion, subsidiary to 190 days of imprisonment, and a replacement payment of Rp809.59 billion, subsidiary to 5 years of imprisonment. It was mentioned that the majority of PT AKAB’s funds came from a Google investment worth 786.99 million US dollars. In this case, Nadiem was proven to have abused his authority, causing state financial losses amounting to Rp1.56 trillion. The corruption was allegedly carried out, among other things, by implementing the procurement of information and communication technology-based learning facilities in the form of Chromebook laptops and CDM for the 2020, 2021, and 2022 fiscal years, not in accordance with procurement planning and procurement principles. The actions of the founder of one of the technology companies were declared to have been carried out together with three other defendants who have been convicted in separate trials, namely Ibrahim Arief alias Ibam, Mulyatsyah and Sri Wahyuningsih, as well as Jurist Tan, who is currently still at large. Thus, the former Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology was proven to have violated the criminal provisions stipulated in Article 3 in conjunction with Article 18 of Law Number 31 of 1999 on the Eradication of Corruption as amended and supplemented by Law Number 20 of 2001 in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph (1) 1st of the Criminal Code.