One of Indonesia's most celebrated tech entrepreneurs is going to prison — and he says he is innocent.
The verdict
Jakarta's anti-corruption court on June 30 found Nadiem Makarim guilty of abuse of authority and causing losses to the state in connection with a government program to supply Google Chromebook laptops to schools during the pandemic, and sentenced him to 10 years in prison, Al Jazeera reported. The sentence was well short of the 18 years prosecutors had sought. The court put the losses to the state at about 1.57 trillion rupiah (roughly $90 million) and ordered him to pay a fine and restitution, according to the Jakarta Post, while acquitting him of personally enriching himself. One judge on the panel dissented, saying he saw no convincing evidence of corrupt intent.
The case
Prosecutors argued that Makarim, who served as education and culture minister under President Joko Widodo from 2019 to 2024, steered the laptop procurement in a way that inflated costs and wasted public money — in part, the court said, because many Indonesian schools lacked the internet access needed to use the devices. Prosecutors also alleged a link between the choice of Google's platform and Google's earlier investment in Gojek, the company Makarim co-founded; Google denied wrongdoing and was not charged. A technology consultant tied to the procurement received a separate prison sentence.
From startup founder to defendant
Makarim's fall has gripped Indonesia. He co-founded Gojek in 2010 as a small motorcycle ride-hailing service and built it into a "super-app" spanning food delivery, payments and logistics; it later merged with the e-commerce firm Tokopedia to form GoTo, one of the country's largest listed tech companies. Appointed to the cabinet at 35 on the strength of his reputation as an innovator, he made the push to digitize schools a signature of his tenure.
Denial and appeal
Makarim rejected the verdict outside the courthouse, insisting that witnesses and experts had found no state loss, no legal violation and no corrupt intent, and saying he would appeal. The case has unfolded amid wider scrutiny of Indonesia's anti-corruption drive, with some legal observers questioning whether high-profile prosecutions of figures from the previous administration reflect genuine accountability or political pressure under the government of President Prabowo Subianto, who took office in late 2024. Reporting as a verdict and a sentence that Makarim is contesting, the outcome is unlikely to be the final word: an appeal would send the case to a higher court.
