Why Nadiem Banned All Meetings with Him from Being Recorded
Former Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Anwar Makarim explained his reasons for prohibiting both offline and Zoom meetings from being recorded. Nadiem also addressed questions regarding the source of his wealth.
Nadiem provided these explanations whilst testifying as a crown witness in an alleged corruption case concerning Chromebook and Chrome Device Management (CDM) procurement at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Tuesday, 10 March 2026. The defendants in the case are Mulyatsyah, Director of the Education and Culture Ministry’s Junior High School Division in 2020; Sri Wahyuningsih, Director of Elementary Schools at the Directorate General of Early Childhood Education, Basic Education and Secondary Education for 2020-2021; and Ibrahim Arief (alias Ibam), a consultant.
Nadiem stated that the prohibition on recording meetings constitutes a standard applied across all meetings. It should be noted that Nadiem himself is also a defendant in this case, being tried in separate proceedings.
When the chief judge asked: “What is your reason for not allowing recording during Zoom meetings?” Nadiem responded: “The reason is that it is standard for all Zoom meetings not to be recorded.”
The prosecutor subsequently questioned Nadiem regarding his income increase. Nadiem stated that his sole source of wealth derives from shares in PT Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa (AKAB).
The prosecutor asked: “Is your income increase, as shown in your tax returns, derived from companies you lead or companies in which you hold shares, whether PT Gojek Indonesia or PT AKAB, now known as PT GOTO?”
Nadiem replied: “All my wealth comes from only one source, which is why it is very easy to read my financial declarations and tax returns. My sole source of wealth is my shares in PT AKAB. My shares in PT GI (Gojek Indonesia) have no value and were never sold—they were reduced from 99 per cent to 0.01 per cent. PT GI is a call centre with no dividends, no profit, and cannot be bought or sold, and was never sold.”
He continued: “All my wealth consists of shares I obtained in 2015 during the establishment of PT AKAB, as you showed. All the income you mentioned comes purely from the valuation of those shares or from the sale of those shares in 2023 and onwards. Throughout the entire Gojek period, from Google’s investment onwards, I took nothing from 2017-2018 and never sold a single share until 2023.”
Nadiem requested that the prosecutor carefully examine his tax returns and financial declarations when preparing charges related to an income increase of Rp 5.2 trillion. He urged the prosecutor to conduct a more thorough investigation.
“I respectfully request that you carefully examine my returns and tax statements for 2022, where you indicate an income gap of Rp 5.2 trillion. Please check again—what is the tax on that amount? The tax on share sales on the IDX stock exchange is 6.1 per cent. However, the 5.2 you mentioned has a tax of only 0.5 per cent. How is that possible? There is only one tax related to public companies in Indonesia that is 0.5 per cent, and that is called founder’s tax—a tax that must be paid once when the company goes public,” Nadiem stated.
He added: “In fact, in 2022, I paid a 0.5 per cent tax on Rp 5.2 trillion. I therefore respectfully request that you conduct a more thorough investigation.”
Nadiem also addressed allegations regarding his share valuation, which prosecutors claim rose from Rp 500 million to Rp 15 billion. He disputed allegations that Rp 809 billion in PT AKAB transactions were related to him.
“However, it has been explained repeatedly that during an IPO, all shareholders’ stocks are split. Imagine, for example, if Rp 100,000 is divided into smaller denominations of Rp 1,000—the value remains Rp 100,000. My sole source of income, wherever you look in my tax returns and financial declarations, is entirely consistent because I disclosed everything clearly. I have no income or assets outside of this—perhaps I own one or two plots of land, but everything is AKAB shares,” Nadiem said.
“You mentioned Rp 809 billion—there is not a single indication in my tax returns or financial declarations of that figure. It has been proven through Gojek’s accounting that Rp 809 billion has no connection to me whatsoever, whether in terms of fund transfers or share increases,” he added.
Previously, the indictment hearing for Mulyatsyah, Sri and Ibam took place on Tuesday, 16 December 2025. The prosecutor charged all three with causing losses to state finances totalling Rp 2.1 trillion.
The prosecutor stated that the calculation of state losses of Rp 2.1 trillion consists of Rp 1.567 trillion in overpriced Chromebook laptop procurement (Rp 1.567,888,662,716.74), and Rp 621 billion (USD 44,054,426) from unnecessary and unbeneficial CDM procurement.